Bulletin Number One 1982

promotion is necessary to boost sales. Without promotion, their efforts would be wasted. Always shuttling between Hong Kong and overseas countries, I am in fact doing a salesman's job. Come to think o f it, for more than twenty years I have been so preoccupied w ith public services that I have not had time to practise my profession and make money! Q. I presume that doesn't matter at all since you are from a wealthy and well-established family, A. This is not correct. My father was a self-made man and my grandfather, who came here from Guangzhou, was only a humble employer o f Yokohama Specie Bank (日本正金銀行 ).My father, after his return from Japan, where he learned banking, started Tak Shun Bank ( 德信銀號） and the Bank o f East Asia. However, my father had on his shoulders avery heavy burden because ours was a very big family: apart from his fourteen children, he also had to support the eight children left behind by his elder brother as well as his mother and sisters. I had to live away from the family since I was fourteen because at that time there was no room in the house to accommodate all o f us. When we were students, my elder brother and I were only given three cents each day for lunch. We could only have a bowl o f plain noodles, mixing w ith the rickshawmen in the Sai Ying Pun area. Nevertheless, my father, who attended school for only a few years, would like to see us all well- educated. When I was seven I was already able to recite The Four Books and many pieces o f classical prose. I attended a private tutorial school and every Sunday my father would pick up a book, turn to any page and ask us to recite the text. We were not allowed to stop until we were told to, and anyone who made more than six mistakes would be confined to the house for the day. But, i f we passed the test, we would be treated to an outing, walking all the way to the Peak via Old Peak Road, and awarded w ith a lunch afterwards. After my graduation from the University o f Hong Kong in 1934 ， I fu lly expected my father to ask me to work' in his bank, but instead, he sent me to the United Kingdom to study law because he believed that for such a big family it would be necessary to have a lawyer to look after the family business. I spent five years in the U.K. and returned in 1940.1 have not used my father's money at all since then. When I first practised as a lawyer, I took the bus from Star Ferry to my home in Causeway Bay for lunch everyday so as to save money. I lived w ith my family (I was married in 1940 and my daughter was born in 1941) in a rented flat at $65 per month and rented a refrigerator at $10 per month because I could not afford to buy one. A t the time, we spent only 50￠ for every meal. Now you can see that I worked my way up like everybody else. Q. Wasn ， t your original intention to study medicine? A. Yes, but my father would not agree because he felt that there were already too many doctors and it would be hard to earn a living. Q. You seem to be very much under the influence o f your father, A. Yes ， very much indeed. I have a profound respect for my father. He always taught me to be honest, sincere and hard-working and I have always tried to live up to his expections. Q. Have you ever regretted taking up law instead o f medicine? A. I have never had any well-defined objective in life, and I am not an ambitious man. To me everything seems prearranged, and all o f a sudden I am in the middle o f something w ithout being aware o f it. Really, never in my life have I set my mind on attaining what in my career. Q. But, did you not from the start set your mind on redressing social injustices? Why? A. I studied at the University o f London and the London School o f Economics and Political Science, which was known to be the 'hotbed o f Socialism'. I might say that I was to some extent influenced by the radical ideas prevalent there. Q. Would you say then that your sojourn at the University o f London changed your outlook? A. Not exactly. Come to think o f it, my sense o f justice was not just developed then, but much 5