Bother band

SOME months ago
Emily Lau said Britain
owed it to Hong
Kongers to a give them
full British citizenship
before the takeover by
China. She said it was
their moral responsibil-
ity. Anything less
would be “the final act
of betrayal.”

Lau is a member of the
Hong Kong legislature and
was named by the Times as
one of the 100 most power-

Dear Editor:

Give your head a shake.
The issue should not be
whether Doug Collins has the
right to state his position
publicly — it should be
whether articles like Mr.
Collins’ belong in a commu-
nity newspaper,

Doug Collins’ opinions
belong in the tabloids —
Nationa! Enquirer and. others
— that I can go to a news-
stand and purchase if I am
interested in teading opinions
like his.

ful women in the world.

Powerful she may be,
although what power she has
does not come from a make-
believe legislature that was
created about 10 years ago
whose decisions could be
vetoed by the governor.

If Beijing allows it to
remain it will then be subject
to the vetoes of China.

As for Britain owing any-
thing to Hong Kongers, I
beg ro differ. It is Hong
Kongers who owe Britain.

Ira naval party had not
raised the British flag in
1841 in what was then a
fishing village, and if the
Treaty of Nanking had not
ceded the istand to Britain
the following year, and if the
New Territories had not
been ieased to Britain in
1898, Hong Kong would
have remained part of China.

And the greatest free port
in the world would not have
existed.

north shore news

VIEWPOINT
Hong Kong owes

Admittedly, the British
occupation of "Hong Kong
was an act of empire. But if
China had had the means to
expand, its rulers would have
thought nothing of raising
their flag on Britain's Isle of
Wighr. That was the way the
world was.

As it turned out, the
Chinese of Hong Kong were
spared the horrors of com-
munist rule, And even before
1949 they were spared the
chaos of The Celestial
Kingdom under the
Manchus. And tater under
their successurs.

As Jan Morris records in
her book on Hong Kong,
Sun Yat-sen, the founder of
modern China, got his ideas
on freedom and capitalism
from Hong Kong. He was
“deeply atfected by the
orderly calm and security of
the colony, compared with
the disorder and i insecurity of
his home province in China.”

MAIL Box
Doug doesn’t belong in community news

The North Shore News is
delivered unsolicited to my
door twice weekly. It sits on
my kitchen table where my
teenagers read and learn
about intolerance and big-
otry.

Right or wrong isn’t the
issue.

The fact that articles like
Collins’ are published in a
tespeciable newspaper lends
credibility tu his statements
for the uninformed or uniniti-
ated and support for the
intolerant.

Teen suicide story well told

Dear Editor:

I am so impressed with
Michael Becker's _ article,
“Darkest moments” in the
Friday June 13 issue. I moved
through many different feel-
ings, from disbelieving to great

Miles of Collins

Dear Editor:

Re: Doug Collins

Want you to know we love
the old boy, hope he has many

sadness, as I read it. What a
treat to read something so
well-written, Thank you!
Fiona Walsh

(mother of four young
adults)

fewalsh@ven.be.ca

more miles left in him!

Casey Kerkhoff
casey_k@uniserve.com

Flnsurance
AServices Inc.

105-200 West Esplanade
North Vancouver
(Located beneath
Famous Players Theatre)

Through the years Collins
has, with the support of the
North Shore News,
slammed virtually every
demographic group outside
of his own. The single recur-
ring theme of his articles has
been intolerance. This theme

ritain

As for democracy, the
people of Hong Kong really
didn’t care much about it.
They were and are maialy
concerned about making
money. The British encour-
aged them and gave them
British law.

That is not to say they
would not like to have had
full control of what has
become “a staggeringly pro-
ductive city-state,” as Morris
puts it. But at least the com-
Munist menace was kept at
bay. And in the last 40 years
they have ridden a wave of
unprecedented prosperity.

{ have been to Hong
Kong twice and was amazed
by its vigor. No wonder peo-

Ie from there think we are
slow. We are caterpillars.
They are humming birds.
That’s why there are more
Rolls Royces in Hong Kong
per head of population than
anywhere else on earth.

Without the British there

simply does not belong in a
newspaper delivered free to
most homes in a community
struggling to overcome a
growing problem with gang
violence and racism.

Terri Johnson
johnsont@direct.ca

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much

would have been no Li Ka-
shings, no Sir Run Run
Shaws, no Sir Kai Ho-Kais
~— billionaires all — and no
education system that is the
envy of Beijing.

Not to mention public
housing which, crowded
though it may be by our
standards, is still far better
than China’s.

There would also have
been no escape route for
refugees, who have come
into Hong Kong in a tor-
rent.

In 1950 the population
was twy inillion. It is now
6.3 million.

Meanwhile, the politically
correct never cease harping
on about white “racism” in
Hong Kong. And ic is true
that for many years, Chinese
could not bry property in
the best areas, no matter
how much money they had.
But times changed and today
rich Chinese look down on

Complete rad flush
lus oi! & filter change,

lesser humanity from their
palatial homes on the Peak.

Racism? Ir has been said
that the Chinese invented it.
China called itself The
Middle Kingdom, meaning it
was the centre of the Eart
around which everything
else revolved.

Whites were known as
“the outer barbarians,” and
— as Morris again records —
“Chinese were brought up
to believe that every Chinese
ever born is superior to any
foreigner.”

Even today, China would
certainly not allow white
immigration is; the way we
allow Chinese immigration.

No Miss Lau, you’ve por
it all wrong. And when the
Union Jack is hauled down
for the last time next week,
many a “Honker” will weep.

— The North Shore News
believes strongly in freedom of
speech and the right of all
sides in a debnite to be heard.
Tae columnists published in
the News present differing
points of view, but these views
&re not necessarily those of the
newspaper itself,

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