DATELINE: HONG KONG
He said, "One of us has got to go to the border." I said, "Let
it be me." : Claire Hollingworth.
Claire Hollingworth, 85, is Hong Kong's most venerable foreign
correspondent. Her first overseas assignment was covering the German
invasion of Poland from the Polish side of the border. She was
working for the British Daily Telegraph, a newspaper she still writes
for almost sixty years later.This interview was completeed at the
Hong Kong Foreig Correspondents Club on 10/7/97.
Hollingworth: Our correspondent had been in Warsaw and he had
been thrown out. Hugh Carlton Green; he later became head of the BBC.
I reported to him. He said, "One of us has got to go to the border."
I said, "Let it be me." I had been [previously] doing work on
the border on refugees coming illegally out of Poland, Jews,
Catholics and communists - any anti Nazis. There were hundreds
sometimes thousands and I helped look after them with various funds
that had been raised. I often went over to Germany to deal with them.
After Poland, I went to France, but no war to cover there, it was the
phony war period. I went to Italy just before it came into the war,
and spent much of 1940 in the Balkans. I saw the Germans gradually
take over these countries. I left Rumania, when they broke diplomatic
relations with the British. I left with the British embassy on a boat
and went to Turkey as the Germans and the Vichy French were taking
over the Vichy French in Syria and the Lebanon. I sailed on a fairly
uncomfortable open boat to Alexandria in the summer of 41 and from
then on I was covering the desert war.
After the war, I spent two years in Palestine covering the middle
east. My husband and I went to Paris where I was based covering the
Algerian war.
Knight: How did you come to Asia?
Hollingworth: I did a tour of British bases around the
world. I went to Malta, Suez, Singapore and of course Hong Kong. I
came here first just after the war and returned many times after
that. In those days I didn't concentrate on meeting other
correspondents. I was more interested in meeting the high ups in
military. I had decided I wanted to become a Defence correspondent
which is what I later became.
During the Vietnam war, I was based in Saigon. I spent quite a lot
of time in Hue. I went to Khe Sanh. I travelled around a lot of the
time. I would stay there for up to six months. I came here for R and
R I became very, very interested in China and the Far East. I
remember asking the Telegraph if I could have three weeks off
to study China and they gave it to me. Of course three weeks was not
very much to learn about China, but they let me stay at the Repulse
Bay Hotel. That was before China had opened up. There were lots of
studying places, which had magazines and clippings and so on in
English and French. There were plenty of officers based at Tamar
[the British naval base] who were very helpful.
Knight: It has been suggested that some reporters like
Richard Hughes [the Australian correspondent] simply made up
stories about China and editors did not know any better.
Hollingworth: I am glad someone is saying that. I was with
Hughes in Cairo. He very very rarely went into the desert. He just
made everything up. I am absolutely amazed he achieved the fame he
did. Truthfully he was not a good correspondent. He had one or two
good pieces of luck. He was in Moscow when Burgess and Maclean gave
their sensational press conference [the two British spies had
defected to the Russians]. He didn't need to make that up. He had
to stick to the line because he was in Russia. In Cairo, he made
anything up that passed the censor. I didn't see him when I first
came to Hong Kong.
Knight: What sort of town was Hong Kong for journalists in
those days?
Hollingworth: Pleasant and easy going. I went into China
twice in 1972 with VIP Brits on quick missions and in 1973, I opened
the Telegraph office in Beijing.
Knight: Will things change for journalists in Hong
Kong?
Hollingworth: I think there will be more guardedness. In
the past, people have been pretty open. They have been critical of
the governor whoever he was. Some more than others of course. They
have been critical of members of Legco and Exco as well. I think
people will be more careful about what they say about the powers that
be.
Knight: Will Hong Kong still be a place for foreign
correspondents?
Hollingworth: Yes. There's got to be a centre. Japan is too
far north from ASEAN. You can get easily into Cambodia, Indochina.
There are plenty of planes. I hope you will be able to get easily
into China. The next centuroy is going to be the centuroy of the
Pacific, you know.
Knight: You have worked both sides of the border. What is
the difference between working in those places?
Hollingworth: In China when I was first there, I had an
interpreter who was a minder and I wasn't allowed to speak to people
unless she was there. But of course things have changed. that is why
I am perfectly optimistic about the future of journalists in Hong
Kong. now you can behave in Peking, almost as though you were in Hong
Kong. You didn't need a minder. You can hire an interpreter, if you
want to. You have to register. But things are pretty free these days
in China.
Knight: Will you be staying on in Hong Kong?
Hollingworth: I shall play it by ear. I think I shall be
staying. I expect to be staying.
Alan Knight