“Singapore is a rapidly developing emporium for the trade with the Far East. It has succeeded in attracting to itself much of the commerce with the Dutch Indies, British North Borneo, the Philippines, and the Federated Malay States. To achieve this, of course, was a difficult matter, even with the aid of the shipping companies, but its clever and energetic business community managed to do it. We Germans may well be proud of the fact that our countrymen now occupy the premier position in the business life of the city....
“ ... We spent about thirty-six hours at Saigon. This city has been laid out by the French with admirable skill, and there is no doubt but that Indo-China is a most valuable possession of theirs. As regards the difference in the national character of the French and the British, it is interesting to note that the former have just erected a magnificent building for a theatre at Saigon, at a cost of 2½ million francs. The British would never have dreamt of doing such a thing; I am sure they would have invested that money in the building of club-houses and race-courses....”
“February 16th, 1901.
“ ... As far as social life and social pleasures are concerned, it must be said that the German colony at Hongkong is in no way inferior to that at Singapore. Premier rank in this respect must be assigned to the Siebs family. Mr. Siebs, the senior member of the Hamburg firm of Siemssen and Co., has been a resident in the East for a long term of years—forty-two, if I remember rightly; and he now occupies an exceedingly prominent position both in German and British society. That this is so is largely due—apart from his intimate knowledge of all that concerns the trade and commerce of China, and apart from his own amiability and never-failing generosity—to his charming wife, who, by means of the hospitality, the refinement, and the exemplary management characterizing her home, has been chiefly instrumental in acquiring for the house of Siebs the high reputation it enjoys. Whoever is received by Mrs. Siebs, I have been told, is admitted everywhere in Hongkong society.
“Even though I only give here an outline of my impressions, I cannot refrain from adding a few details dealing with some aspects of everyday life at Hongkong, this jewel among the crown colonies of Britain. The offices of the big firms and of the shipping companies’ agencies, most of them housed in beautiful buildings, flank the water’s edge; farther back there is the extensive shopping quarter, and still more in the rear there is the Chinese quarter, teeming with an industrious population. Being myself so much mixed up with the means of communication, I am surely entitled to make a few remarks concerning this subject in particular. Horses are but rarely seen, and are only used for riding, and sporting purposes generally. Their place is taken by the coolies, who no doubt represent the most pitiable type of humanity—at least, from the point of view of a sensitive person. In the low-lying part of the town the jinrikishas, which are drawn by coolies, predominate; but the greater part of Hongkong is situated on the slopes of a hill, and nearly all the private residences are built along the beautifully kept, terrace-like roads leading up to the summit of the peak. In this part the chair coolies take the place of the jinrikisha coolies; and in the low-lying parts also it is considered more stylish to be carried by chair coolies. The ordinary hired chairs are generally carried by two coolies only, but four are needed for the private ones. The work done by these poor wretches is fatiguing in the extreme. They have to drag their masters up and down the hill, which is very steep in places, and it is a horrid sensation to be carried by these specimens of panting humanity for the first time. In the better-class European households each member of the family has his own chair, and the necessary coolies along with it, who are paid the princely wage of from 16 marks to 17 marks 50 pfennigs a month. They also receive a white jacket and a pair of white drawers reaching to the knee, but they have to provide their own food. The poor fellows are generally natives from the interior parts of the island. They spend about one mark a week on their food; the rest they send home to their families. They are mostly married, and the money they earn in their capacity as private coolies represents to them a fortune. They rarely live longer than forty years; in fact, their average length of life is said not to exceed thirty-five. As many as eight coolies were engaged to attend to the needs of my wife and myself for the time of our stay. The poor creatures, who, by the way, had quite a good time in our service, spent the whole day from early in the morning to late at night lying in front of a side entrance to our hotel, except when they had to do their work for us....
“ ... The Chinese have only one annual holiday—New Year. They are hard at work during the whole year; they know of no Sundays and of no holidays, but the commencement of the New Year is associated with a peculiar belief of theirs. To celebrate the event, they take their best clothes out of pawn (which, for the rest of the year, they keep at the pawnbroker’s to prevent them from being stolen). To keep the evil spirits away during the coming twelvemonth, they burn hundreds of thousands of firecrackers when the New Year begins, and also during the first and second days of it, accompanied by the noise of the firing of guns. One must have been through it all in order to understand it. For the better part of two days and two nights one could imagine a fierce battle raging in the neighbourhood; crackers were exploding on all sides, together with rockets and fireballs, and the whole was augmented by the shouting and screaming of the revellers. It was a mad noise, and we could scarcely get any sleep at night.
“The houses in the Chinese quarter were decorated up to the roofs with bunting, beautiful big lanterns, paper garlands with religious inscriptions, and a mass of lovely flowers.
“On such days—the only holidays they possess—the Chinese population are in undisputed possession of their town, and the British administration is wise enough not to interfere with the enjoyment of these sober and hard-working people. I really wonder how the German police would act in such cases....”
“Shanghai, March 6th, 1901.
“ ... It is surely no exaggeration to describe Shanghai as the New York of the Far East. The whole of the rapidly increasing trade with the Yangtse ports, and the bulk of that with the northern parts of the country, passes through Shanghai. The local German colony is much larger than the one at Hongkong; and here, too, it is pleasant to find that our countrymen are playing an extremely important part in the extensive business life of the town....”