Category: Queries + Answers

James Chan: Mitsui & Company Ltd. (三井物産 Mitsui Bussan) is one of the largest sogo shosha (general trading companies) in Japan, and also part of the Mitsui Group. Its business area covers energy, machinery, chemicals, food, textile, logistics, finance, and more. The company was first established in 1876 with 16 members including the founder, Takashi Masuda. As Japan’s international trading was dominated by foreigners […]

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Elizabeth Ride sent this brief mention of Leather Works No.1 in Hong Kong in a BAAG Report from September 1944 during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in World War Two. There is very little to go on and I don’t think I have come across any leather works here before. Can anyone offer further information about this or any […]

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Bonnie Manzon (aka Bonnie Ko) recently left a comment attached to our article,Hong Kong Clays and Kaolin Company (香港磁泥有限公司) – Kaolin Mine, Cha Kwo Ling. “As a very young mother of three, we were living in ” the Bungalow” on the mining site of Hk Clays and Kaolin Co. in Cha Kwo Ling Village from 1980 to 1983. I have […]

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HF: J H Stewart Lockhart was Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong from 1895-1902. He wrote a report to the Colonial Office in London, reporting on “The New Territory” . This followed “The Convention between Great Britain and China respecting an Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong.” The report was published on the 8th Oct 1898. The report has an intriguing mention […]

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Tymon Mellor: While researching mines in Hong Kong, I came across this newspaper article from the Hong Kong Daily Press, dated the 12th October, 1889, on the discovery of a new mineral find by Mr J Grant Smith. The mineral ore was exposed following a storm the previous May and considered to be “a payable mine”. The location is described as […]

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Stephen Davies: An interesting question to which I don’t know the answer, is what the provenance is of the gasometer that still stands (and I believe is in use for stand-by storage) back from the Tin Wan Praya waterfront just outside the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter West entrance (on the north shore). I’m fairly sure it’s been there as long as I […]

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TM Lee is well known in camera and photographic circles as he was the creator of the Hong Kong manufactured Holga Camera. However there is very little biographical information about Mr Lee. He was born around 1930. He was employed as factory manager in HK by the Japanese camera manufacturer Yashica from 1966 for a few years. He later started […]

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Ian Wolfe posted this image of this signboard on flikr which he suggests might have been a small teaching establishment probably run by craftsmen in 70s, for those who were fascinated by the radio electronics world. He has translated the sign which certainly suggests Alice was an educational establishment of some form. Ian adds in an email to the Group that […]

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Our Q+A 20 about George U. Sands asks for information about three HK companies he was involved in. One of these was the Novelty Iron Works. Can you provide information about the NIW which has several tantalising mentions in dispatches but no solid career record? Harvard University Library has a collection of Sands’ business records which consist of account books, letter […]

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HF: The SCMP of 30th January 2016 contained a letter from R Coates of Lai Chi Kok about the HK Government’s current and future major infrastructure proposals. The letter says, “…I look forward to the rebirth of the Lei Yue Mun suspension bridge project, aborted in the 1970s because the towers would have interfered with Kai Tak radar”. I would […]

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