RIVIERA-LIKE MACAO

Hokitika Guardian, 11 March 1922, Page 4

RIVIERA-LIKE MACAO

LORD NORTHCLIFFE’S IMPRESSIONS. AVhen Portugal was invited to take part in the deliberations of the Washington Conference about the South China gea there was a lifting of the eyebrows, until somebody remombered Timor and Macao. I have only seen Timor from a distance; I have just visited Macao, and • found it a much more interesting place than the average resident of the Far Fast had told me. The Chinese Bri- . tons of Hong-kong and Shanghai are a busy folk. They come from home intent, as a rule, on making their fortune in a certain period. They work | hard and play hard; and not many of them have time or inclination for historical research.

In any case, in dealing with Portuguese, who are a peaceful, if politically excitable, folk, it is difficult to realise that their ancestors were among jthe aggressive European adventurers into the Far East. They weru at •Malacca in 1511; and in 1557, during the Ming dynasty they settled down at Macao with many bloody encounters before them.

Our yacht for the day was a Chinese riverboat, with a Scottish captain and engineer; and, for excellent reasons not unconnected with river piracy the Chinese passengers were barred off, as in a cage, from the rest of us. W G get out from Hong-kong, that young an f ] lovely daughter of British enterprise. If there is a more ’beautiful harbour than Hong-kong, I have yet to see it. The Peak might be L a Turbie behind Monte Carlo; and I seemed to see the lights of Alonte Carlo when I saw the lights of Hong-kong by night. SHTPS AVTTH GOLDEN SAILSAVe pass close to the famous Repulse Bay which is called the Mentone of the East. For nearly an hour we might have been cruising along the French Riviera between Villefranche and Afentone; and the wonderful new road, 30 miles long, which has been made by the enterprising folk of Hongkong is not unlike the new roads on the Riviera." The sunshine was as bright as at Cap d’Ail. But whereas that part of the Mediterranean is « shipless sea, here were thousands—literally thouands— of gold-sailed junks tacking to and fro, with that absurd air of sailing backwards which they get from having poops 30ft. above the water and bows about four.

Four hours of a delightfully peaceful passage in historic waters, and some-

where near the mouth of the Canton river, about 40 miles from Hong-kong, we came in sight of ATaeao—Macao dozing in the sunshine, comfortably at rest upon a sharply jutting promotory, which on the river side gives good shelter t othe pirate-chasers. To the people of Hong-Kong Macao is their Afonte Carlo; but I am not interested in Chinese gambling, which can be seen secretly or openly at San Francisco, as in Borneo or at ATaeao, and is the same everywhere. CHINESE SEDAN-CHATRS.

To me ATaeao appeared as a beautiful little Portuguese city. There is a certain melancholy about it, but it is the melancholy, not of solitude; but of ruins .of avenidns, of lovely gardens tended by hands long forgotten. T cannot he regarded in any other light than that of a pleasure-town. Allowing for small differences of local taste, its counterpart might be found anywhere between San Remo and Cannes, especially on the Italian sid e of the frontier. There are not many Portuguese, in the sunny and shaded by-ways; and the ever-increasing Chinese, their rickshaws and sedan-chairs, and the sharp crying of hawkers remind one that one is not in Portugal, or even in Portuguese cities like Azimoor, Afazagan, or Saffi in French Morocco.

Vet in itself Macao is very Portuguese. The pale pink and pale green houses, with balustrades and verandahs, take one for a few seconds hack to the Tagus, just as in Manila one is wafted suddenly to Seville, or in New Zealand fancies oneself sometimes in the other Kn«; 1 and in the North Sea. Macao way he the last stand of the

Portuguese in the Par hast •. but if they are going down, they are going down proudly. A revolution in Lisbon seems to have small effect in this little outpost of their once great empire. They have laid out and they are going on laying out fine roads in Macao; on e of them a magnificent road which skirts a curving shore called Half-Moon Bay, almost exactly like Mentone—Caravan.

And their botanic gardens and nvenidas nan! open spaces arc flower for flower the same as the best things in Prance

and Italy—better, I believe, because of thf> complete absence of artificiality in Heir beauty. POET’S FOREST TOWEII.

Camoeus, i.lio great Portuguese poet, lived here and wrote many ol his poems on a little tower in a bamboo lorest, wleml' ihnugli an opening he could see for miles up river and, on the rigid, out fa sen. This bamboo forest is a. part of the gardens oi \ asco da Gama, and is a beaulifol, shady place, full of poinsettins, temple flowers, gold niohiir I:ees, :.ud that deep, (hep red Honolulu creeper for which tropical gardeners sigh in vain. Close to Oamcons’s retreat lies a lorlorn old cemetery, where arc I he graves of many Englishmen. Among lie. m v.c found the headstone f horn IP u \ John SpeiKvr-Churehill (fourth sun of Ceorge, fifth Duke of Marlborough)-, '-'I o was captain of H.8.A1. ship Druid and senior office;- in lk> Cliina Seas. He dh .i i-i Macau Bonds on June 2, U 10, and l lie stone was put up “by his office's and petty officers in testimony of their esteem and affection.” Another headstone preserves I lie memory of one Lieutenant Wintle, of I-LM.S. Royal George, who died on the Chinn Station in Isl 7. Imagine circling half the world and reaching Macao to find the graves of two English naval officers! And we of to-day fancy that we are setting the world an example in travel!

JUST LTKE LISBON. On one side of Macao, beyond a .wharf, carpeted as far as the eye can see with bamboo trays carrying decayed and recnying fish of all colours, si»es, and smells, you see out in the Hoads (where Churchill died) armed motorlaunches, and stanch old junks with the muzzles of what look like threepounders grinning out of their scjuaie stern-ports. Upon just such little ships as these must Wintle and Churchill have looked

their la st in the reign of King George 111 and the earliest yeggs of IJnecn Victoria.

Op tjie other side of Macao, the Hongkong side, stands thfe Governor’s residence, a pretty white house lowered in trees, with an old castle above and yijlas and gardens lining the fine motor roads. The JGoyernpr himself, da Silva, spj; of p farmer Governor and one of a long succession, is a y.oqng, alert man, who speaks English well.