Book Rview: The Banknote that never was

Book Title:     The Banknote that never was

Publisher:       Gulliver Books, Hong Kong

Author:           Francis Braun  

Date:               1982

     

Rather an unusual book which deals mainly with the overprinting of Chinese and Japanese banknotes to HK Dollars in the immediate period following the Japanese surrender. Although the overprinted notes were readied for use they were not required as new notes arrived from Britain transported by warship in mid September 1945. The Military Yen notes issued during the Japanese occupation were canceled. Many merchants had accumulated large amounts of the wartime currency but they ended up being worthless. The Author, Francis Braun, was living in Hong Kong before the war and working for Ye Olde Printerie. The proprietors of the printing company were Victor and George Labrum. They had established the company in 1923. The two bothers had served in the HKVDC and had been incarcerated at Sham Shui Po Prison Camp.  

Francis Braun was a Hungarian national. He starts the book with his arrest on 7 December 1941, the day before the Pacific War began in Hong Kong time. He tells us he was a resident of the Arlington Hotel in Mody Street, Kowloon. As he returned to the hotel on Sunday evening he found a policeman waiting for him. The policeman told Braun that he was to be interned as his country was at war with Great Britain. Hungary had joined the Tripartite Pact in November 1940 and Britain declared war on Hungary, on 5 December 1941 with 7 December being the effective date. He was duly incarcerated at Victoria Prison and the next morning he was taken by van to Stanley Prison where he was interned with other Italian, German, Austrian and Hungarian civilian internees. His prison mates included the Italian Maitre d'  Hotel for the Hong Kong Hotel. He recalled being bombed and strafed by Japanese aircraft perhaps thinking the prison was a barracks. Three days after the British surrender they were released by the Japanese. They were given a meal at the Repulse Bay Hotel  and then driven to the Central District where they were offloaded and had to fend for themselves.  Braun stayed at the Luk Kwok Hotel on the Wan Chai waterfont  for a few days. On 4 January 1942, at the invitation of Reverend Alaric Rose, the Dean of St John's Cathedral, he moved into the Bishop's House. He describes the other residents as being Danes, Norwegians, Russians, Chinese, Austrians, and Germans. His bosses, the Labrum brothers, asked him to try and keep the printing company going but it was the Japanese appoined uniformed officials who ran the business and made the decisions. In 1943, Braun moved out of Bishop's House with a German couple and rented an apartment on Kowloon side. He recalled the increasing number of American air raids and that togther with reports in the Hong Kong News of the fighting getting closer to Japan demonstrated that the war was  going in favour of  the Allies. The Hong Kong News was a Japanese owned and controlled newspaper.  and radio sets had to be handed in and the shortwave reception restricted. So reliable news was not readily available. 

The book is mainly given over to the subject of over-priting of bank notes after the Japanese capitulation rather than life in occupied Hong Kong which would have been more inteesting. 

Score:  3 out of 10 

Receiving ships in Hong Kong Harbour during the 19th Century

The receiving ships were hulked by the removal of their upper masts and rigging and by the removal of some or all of their guns. They were moored in mid-harbour. They typically acted as hospital ships, store ships, accommodation ships and as headquarters of the Royal Navy in Hong Kong. They are depicted in early photos or artists renditions with canvas covers stretched above their upper decks providing some relief from the summer heat. Some of the receiving ships also called harbour ships overlapped each other in Hong Kong. At the end of their useful life they were mostly sold in Hong Kong for breaking up. 

HMS Minden was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line. A battleship from the days of the sailing navy. She was launched in 1810 in Bombay, India. The Minden was hulked in 1842 and served as a hospital ship anchored in Victoria Harbour. She replaced the shore-based Royal Naval Hospital which was destroyed by a typhoon in July 1841. The first Royal Naval Hospital was a temporary mat-shed structure located near the site of Wellington Barracks. Minden was replaced as a hospital ship by HMS Alligator in 1846 and Minden became a store ship and receiving ship. Minden was sold for breaking up in 1861. Two streets in Kowloon, Minden Row and Minden Avenue, are named after this ship commemorating its early association with Hong Kong. 

HMS Minden in action at the bombardment of Algiers in 1816 (Source: Wikipedia)

HMS Alligator was a smaller vessel than the Minden but also constructed in India as a 28-gun sixth rate corvette., also described as a frigate. She had seen action during the First Opium War. In 1842 she was converted to act as a troop ship before being hulked in 1846 and serving as a naval hospital. She was sold for breaking up in October 1865 in Hong Kong

The Corvette HMS Alligator served as a hospital ship in HK Harbour (Source: Wikipedia)

HMS Hercules was launched at Chatham in 1815. She was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line.  In 1854 she arrived in Hong Kong to serve as Receiving Ship. She was sold in 1865 for breaking up. 

HMS Melville built at Bombay and launched in 1817. She was a former 74-gun third rate ship of the line.  She became a hospital ship in 1857. She was sold for scrap in 1873 and the funds received were used to finance a new Royal Naval Hospital which was built on the raised ground now occupied by Ruttonjee Hospital .

HMS Prince Charlotte:  Built at Portsmouth and launched in 1825. She was a first rate ship of the line carrying 104 guns. She was named after the daughter of the Prince Regent (later George IV).  In 1837 she was flagship of the Mediterranean fleet. She was sent to Hong Kong in 1858 during the Second Opium War (1857 - 1859).

HMS Princess Charlotte (Source: www world naval ships).

HMS Meeanee was a two-decker 80-gun second rate ship of the line. She was built in Bombay and launched in 1821.  Her name strikes one as rather strange but she was in fact  named after the Battle of Meeanee. The English rendition is sometimes referred to as Miani.  The battle n British India took place in 1843. In 1857 Meeanee was fitted with engines and screw propoulsion.  In 1867 (70) she was hulked and served as a hospital ship in Victoria Harbour catering for Army personnel. She survived until 1906 when she was sold to the breaker's yard.

HMS Victor Emanuel was launched at Pembroke Dockyard in 1855. She had originally been named HMS Repulse. The ship was remamed after King Victor Emanuel II who in 1861 became King of a united Italy. She carried 80 to 90 guns and was categorized as a second rate ship of the line with steam power (single screw) and full sailing rig. It was a time when the sailing navy was giving way to steam propulsion. She arrived in Hong Kong to act as receiving ship in 1874 replacing HMS Princess Charlotte. She was the receiving ship for 21 years. The senior naval officer had his HQ on board this vessel. 

HMS Victor Emanuel hulked and acting as the Receiving Ship in Hong Kong Harbour (Source: Web site HK Museum of War Resistanc and Coastal Defence)

HMS Tamar was launched at London Docks in 1863. She was a hybrid similar to Victor Emanuel possessing sail, mast and full rigging combined with a steam engine which powered powering a single screw and originally originally with two funnels later reduced to one. This was dismantled when she was hulked. She was built from iron rather than wood. She served for many years as a trooper and becoming receiving ship in Hong Kong in 1897 and replacing Victor Emanuel. She, like other receiving ships, acted as a hospital ship, accommodation ship and RN HQ. She was hulked in the harbour until 1913 when she was moved and moored alongside the West Wall of the Royal Naval Basin. During the Second World War she was towed out to the harbour in December 1941 following the Japanese inasion of Hong Kong. She was scuttled off the Wanchai water front. Parts of what is believed to be her metal hull bottom were discovered during reclamation work along with artefacts that suggest these may have been  from that venerable old Victorian warship. When she was scuttled at her mooring it was reported that a large number of rats made their way up from the lower decks as the ship started to submerge. She sank slowly with part of her superstructure remaining above water.

HMS Tamar hulked at her moorings  in HK Harbour (Source: internet)

HMS Tamar lying alongside the west wall of the RN Basin (Source: internet)

Sources:

Gwulo.com

White Ensign - Red Dragon The History of the Royal Navy in Hong Kong 1841-1997. (1997) Edited by Commodore P. J. Melson