LURE OF THE ORIENT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 30 August 1927, Page 3

LURE OF THE ORIENT

LUXURY OF SERVANTS FOREIGNERS GET MORE EASE. Shanghai, Aug. 16. The “Call of the East” is “Boy!” The much talked-of “ Lure of the East” for the white man and white woman is largely the luxury of servants, the ease of life and the cheapness of the “high cost of living.” And that to a considerable extent explains why so many Americans, British, Germans and other foreigners are in the Far East, and by their presence in China make complications for their respective governments in these days of the demagogic agitatory cry of “ Drive out the foreigners.” With few exceptions, the foreigners in China are here on legitimate business or for a legitimate purpose, whatever it may be. The foreigner may be a missionary, an educator, a medical man, diplomatist, consular appointee, merchant, business man, banker, journalist or what not, but invariably the luxury of servants, the ease and cheapness of living, is a great factor in keeping him in the Far East year after year. He gets more ease out of life for the money he earns than he could get anywhere else in the world, and he knows it. That is why he likes it, why he stays, why he doesn’t care to leave or return if he does leave. Not more comforts or more luxuries, but more ease, if you can understand the distinction.

They speak and write of it as the “Lure of the East” or the “Call of the East.” You can hear that “call” every minute in the day in the hotels, homes, bars, streets and business places in Peking, Tientsin, Tsingtau, Shanghai, Hankow, Hongkong and other of the places where there are foreigners. Il is “Boy.” And “boy” nieans servant. Boy here, boy there. Boy, do this, do that! And “boy” is sometimes a grandfather. And no one enjoys the abundance, the services, the cheapness and the luxury of “Boy” more than do American and British women. None are more reluctant to give up that luxury besides which many other discomforts and not always agreeable phases out here pale in significanceor comparison.

For low cost of living, abundance and cheapness of servants, China is to-day the only paradise I know of. There may be other snakes in this paradise, but those who luxuriate in the satisfaction of being eternally waited upon and having servants at beck and call, and that without danger of the poor house, will not mind those other serpents or dragons in China's garden. Here every American and European can feel that he is lord and master of somebody. And he is. If the cost of living and the enjoyment of having servants, in Peking, Tsingtau, which is a little piece of Germany, and the model colony in China, Shanghai, and Hongkong, were better known, they would become the haven for spinsters, widows, pensioners and those who have retired on a small income.

An American from Chicago, living in Peking, told me that the twelve servants he has cost him exactly what his chauffeur’s wages were in Chicago. An American newspaper correspondent in Peking has a beautiful establishment, including his own private swimming pool, in one of the several courts of his compound, and seven servants. He explained to me that it all cost about 100 dollars a week. Where in all the world can a woman stenographer or secretary, paid in American or British money, have two or even three servants, except in Peking or Shanghai? A good cook gets 15 dollars or an extraordinary one perhaps 18 dollars a month. He may also be “No. 1 boy,” that is, he is boss of the other servants. If you have any complaints, you make them to him. He is your “complaint bureau” as well and dresses down or fires the offender. The servants feed themselves, aside from a little that they, of course, get away with of your food. Most often the leavings are turned over to them.

Rents are low' when compared with New York« London, Berlin or Paris. In Peking the houses are largely only onestoreyed, several of them for one family in a compound, each with its own garden or court. In Shanghai and Hongkong the architecture is more European.