LADY HO TUNG

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19830, 3 May 1927, Page 3

LADY HO TUNG

FAMOUS CHINESE IN LONDON THE ROMANCE OF SIR ROBERT Lady Ho Tung, wife of one of Hong Kong’s greatest merchant princes arrived in London unexpectedly, last week, and, accompanied by two daughters and one Chinese woman servant, stayed quietly in a West End hotel. : Few of her many friends in London knew of her visit; fellow guests at the i hotel and members of the hotel staff little realised that the stately, smiling lady and her two charming daughters were members of the family of Sir Robert Ho Tung, one of the richest men in Hong Kong, a millionaire Financier who on more than one occasion has held vast political power in China. Unlike Sir Robert, who always wears Chinese dress. Lady Ho Tung and her two daughters follow Western fashions. Another member of the family now in England, Mr Robert Ho Tung, who has been studying at Woolwich for an Army career, follows the Western read of his mother and sisters. The son is a prominent member of the Central Union of Chinese Students in England. A Romantic Career The story of the rise to immense affluence of Sir Robert Ho Tung is a romance of modern business. He began his career as assistant compradore (a compradorc acts as a link between the British merchants and the Chinese') with the great firm of Jardine, Matheson and Company. Fourteen years i later, in 1894, he was chief compradorc. , He retired in 1900, and since then has I become the director of numerous com- 1 panics and a power in Anglo-Chinese | finance. The one-time compradorc has played | an important part in politics. He was ( primarily responsible for the selfb' . moot of the great seamen’s strike in i Hong Kong and the Chinese ports in | 1922, and in 1923 was the principal I promoter of a round table conference of China’s various war lords, which was called with a view to settling the internal disputes and disturbances, and he personally interviewed many of them. He was honorary advisor to two former Presidents of China —Hsu Shih Chang and Li Yuan Hung. He was awarded a knighthood by King Edward for his services to Hong Kong, and is the possessor of many Chinese and European decorations. He ■ was Hong Kong Commissioner at the! Wembley Exhibitions of 1924 and 1925.