Page 59 - Gary's Book - Final Copy 7.9.2017_Active

household furniture and appliances would be placed in storage. Our health
insurance and life insurance would be provided along with cost-of-living
adjustments due to inflation and currency variations. One major benefit would be
that our U.S. federal and local Hong Kong taxes would be prepared, filed and paid.

I accepted the assignment; it was to be for four years.
I was responsible for 17 countries, which were known geographically as Southeast

Asia and Mainland China. My title was Director, Vice-President & General
Manager of Dow Corning, Asia, Ltd. I reported to our corporate headquarters in
the USA and had indirect reporting accountability to Fuji Polymers and Toshiba in
Japan, both of which were owned by Dow Corning. This meant I dealt with 18
cultures and currencies. This was a real growth challenge in a virgin territory with

only scattered employees in Hong Kong and Singapore. A separate corporation in
Sydney, Australia, managed Australia and New Zealand.

One summer evening while the family was on vacation back in the USA, and I was
working in Hong Kong, I had dinner with a distributor. I normally parked my car
several blocks away from the hotel. As I approached my car at 2:30 a.m., three

Chinese policemen were standing around the car and wanted to know if the vehicle
was mine. I admitted that it was, and they told me I had to go with them to the
police station and that they were impounding the car; they gave no reason why.
Upon arrival at the station, there were only Chinese-speaking policemen, no
English-speaking ones, so I had to wait for four hours to talk to the authorities. He
said the car had hit a young boy on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong and killed
him. They told me that I had to forfeit my passport and stay on the island until the

matter was cleared up. I called headquarters and told them of the situation and that
I could not travel for an unknown amount of time. I had plenty of office duties to
catch up on, so it really was not a hindrance. Three days later, the captain called
and asked me to come to the station. He told me that it was all a mistake and that
the boy had been hit by a motorcycle with the same license plate number. They

released my car, my passport and me at once. This really did not concern me or
scare me because “we” (Dow Corning) were very comfortable there.

Just to share some of the costs in U.S. dollars in Hong Kong in 1974, a 2,000-
square foot apartment was $5,000 per month - empty. We put in seven window air
conditioners and purchased all the furniture. Utilities were three to four times U.S.

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