Page 101 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 101
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
stewards on deck. Yang would thump the table, GFA would listen sympathetically
and the group would depart. Back would come Yang, and he and GFA would then
resolve the dispute as far as possible. Sometimes GFA would take up an individual
seaman’s case with the Marine Superintendent or the Superintendent Engineer, and
this may well have given a seaman the feeling that there was at least one foreigner in
the Firm who understood his problems and his way of thinking. GFA used to remark
‘the Chinese are a very reasonable people providing the reasoning is Chinese’.”
On 13 August 1937, the Japanese began the assault on the Chinese city and terrific destruction
followed. GFA became involved with the Chinese Red Cross and the International Relief Commission
who brought 100,000 refugees into the safety of the International Settlement. When TV Soong
moved to Washington, he left many of his personal effects with Findlay Andrew and I remember when
we went to dinner at their home while we were in Shanghai on our return to China in 1940, one side of
their lounge was filled by a huge glass case in which was a model of a ship. Uncle told us it
belonged to TV. TV also asked him to look after his house in the French Concession, so GFA
arranged for reliable tenants to occupy it, and he visited the place himself once a week. During these
years he sometimes left Shanghai to visit Gansu or West China or the North, probably acting for the
Chinese Government as well as the Company. In mid-November 1940 he wrote a very revealing letter
to TV Soong in which he said, ‘Though I feel I am serving the interests of China in my present job, I
sometimes long to undertake work which lies nearer to my heart, so any time you want me just call me
and I will come.’ However it was not to be TV Soong who called him during the stormy years of World
War II, but Winston Churchill.
WORLD WAR II
On 30 November 1940 Aileen married Alastair Macaulay in Shanghai. His firm stationed him in
Chefoo, so Aileen found herself living close to her old school. In January 1941 David Bentley-Taylor
arrived in Chefoo from Tianjin and became engaged to Jessie Moore, Aileen’s cousin. It was Alastair
who passed David as free from chicken pox to go to Shanghai for their wedding. Raymond Moore,
Percy’s eldest son and Jessie’s nephew, was also in Chefoo at this time just beginning life in the Prep.
School.
GFA and Fanny and Leslie all attended Jessie’s and David’s wedding on 4 March 1941 and, four days
later his seven years with Butterfield & Swire ended. He and Fanny sailed for Los Angeles and went
on to Toronto to see Mervyn. In the Autumn they returned to Singapore and GFA quickly became
involved in ‘the work nearest my heart’. He was attached to the Ministry for Economic Warfare which
was really a cover for ‘Secret Operations Executive’.
Aileen died suddenly in Chefoo on 13 November 1941. She was 27 and expecting her first child. It
was thought she should have her appendix removed, but she suffered an embolism and never
recovered. She was buried in the CIM cemetery at Chefoo, close to where her grandparents were
buried.
Three weeks later the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and then mounted their assault on Hong Kong
where Leslie now was. On Christmas Day the Colony fell and Leslie was interned in the Stanley Park
Internment Camp.
GFA and Fanny had already left Singapore for India when Singapore also fell to the Japanese. From
there they went back to China to Jiang Kaishek’s war time capital in Chongqing. Here GFA was
employed in the British Embassy, but they lived for a time in the CIM home. While there they received
101
Amy Moore
stewards on deck. Yang would thump the table, GFA would listen sympathetically
and the group would depart. Back would come Yang, and he and GFA would then
resolve the dispute as far as possible. Sometimes GFA would take up an individual
seaman’s case with the Marine Superintendent or the Superintendent Engineer, and
this may well have given a seaman the feeling that there was at least one foreigner in
the Firm who understood his problems and his way of thinking. GFA used to remark
‘the Chinese are a very reasonable people providing the reasoning is Chinese’.”
On 13 August 1937, the Japanese began the assault on the Chinese city and terrific destruction
followed. GFA became involved with the Chinese Red Cross and the International Relief Commission
who brought 100,000 refugees into the safety of the International Settlement. When TV Soong
moved to Washington, he left many of his personal effects with Findlay Andrew and I remember when
we went to dinner at their home while we were in Shanghai on our return to China in 1940, one side of
their lounge was filled by a huge glass case in which was a model of a ship. Uncle told us it
belonged to TV. TV also asked him to look after his house in the French Concession, so GFA
arranged for reliable tenants to occupy it, and he visited the place himself once a week. During these
years he sometimes left Shanghai to visit Gansu or West China or the North, probably acting for the
Chinese Government as well as the Company. In mid-November 1940 he wrote a very revealing letter
to TV Soong in which he said, ‘Though I feel I am serving the interests of China in my present job, I
sometimes long to undertake work which lies nearer to my heart, so any time you want me just call me
and I will come.’ However it was not to be TV Soong who called him during the stormy years of World
War II, but Winston Churchill.
WORLD WAR II
On 30 November 1940 Aileen married Alastair Macaulay in Shanghai. His firm stationed him in
Chefoo, so Aileen found herself living close to her old school. In January 1941 David Bentley-Taylor
arrived in Chefoo from Tianjin and became engaged to Jessie Moore, Aileen’s cousin. It was Alastair
who passed David as free from chicken pox to go to Shanghai for their wedding. Raymond Moore,
Percy’s eldest son and Jessie’s nephew, was also in Chefoo at this time just beginning life in the Prep.
School.
GFA and Fanny and Leslie all attended Jessie’s and David’s wedding on 4 March 1941 and, four days
later his seven years with Butterfield & Swire ended. He and Fanny sailed for Los Angeles and went
on to Toronto to see Mervyn. In the Autumn they returned to Singapore and GFA quickly became
involved in ‘the work nearest my heart’. He was attached to the Ministry for Economic Warfare which
was really a cover for ‘Secret Operations Executive’.
Aileen died suddenly in Chefoo on 13 November 1941. She was 27 and expecting her first child. It
was thought she should have her appendix removed, but she suffered an embolism and never
recovered. She was buried in the CIM cemetery at Chefoo, close to where her grandparents were
buried.
Three weeks later the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and then mounted their assault on Hong Kong
where Leslie now was. On Christmas Day the Colony fell and Leslie was interned in the Stanley Park
Internment Camp.
GFA and Fanny had already left Singapore for India when Singapore also fell to the Japanese. From
there they went back to China to Jiang Kaishek’s war time capital in Chongqing. Here GFA was
employed in the British Embassy, but they lived for a time in the CIM home. While there they received
101
