Al Capone’s Limo in Shanghai

Last year I blogged about the tale of Al Capone’s custom-made bulletproof limo from Chicago ending up in Shanghai where it was owned by Jardine’s taipan and Chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council Tony Keswick. From what I can gather this is likely a true tale and Keswick did indeed buy Capone’s old car, when it was on a tour of England after the gangster went to jail in the States, and had it shipped to Shanghai. Keswick needed the car – there was at least one attempt on his life in 1941 by an irate Japanese nationalist in Shanghai.

Here is a link to a short video of the car being shown to curious onlookers in the seaside resort of Southend, when it was on tour in England. Keswick himself left Shanghai shortly before Pearl Harbor in late 1941. The question that remains is what happened to Capone’s limo – presumably still in Shanghai?? Could it possibly be locked away in a garage somewhere?? Now that would be a find!

The Last of the Chinese Labour Corp Return Home from France – 21 Years Later

Among the men of the Chinese Labour Corps (the so-called Coolie Corps) that went to Europe in World War One to work for the British and French governments some never returned home – dead in France or Belgium – while others opted to stay in Europe, married, had families, started businesses etc. Some stayed for a while after the war, helping/working in the reconstruction of the continent after the conflict. Most of these only stayed a few years. But some it seems stayed a lot longer. Here, in 1937, is a record of perhaps the last of the Chinese Labour Corps to return home to China – 21 years after they signed up for the Corps in China in 1916 – in 1937….

(PS: this Wednesday – May 4th no less!! – a one-day China and the Great War Symposium is being held at the Imperial War Museum in London with several speakers on the Chinese Labour Corps – their history and contribution – including Xu Guoqi, Paul Bailey, Gregory James and Guo Xiaolu  as well as an exhibition of photographs from the Imperial War Museum of the Labour Corps – tickets are free and bookable here)

Die Gelbe Post and AJ Storfer

The headed paper and details of the Shanghai newspaper, Gelbe Post, run by A.J. Storfer from 17 Canton Road (Guangdong Road now)…more on the paper and Storfer below from my book Through the Looking Glass…

In 1931 a weekly was launched called Die Gelbe Post (The Yellow Post) that concentrated more on Jewish cultural affairs, some news and commentary. In 1938 Albert Joseph Storfer (below) took over the editorship and eventually turned it into a daily. Storfer had been a noted Viennese psychoanalyst and a founder of, and writer for, the International Psychoanalytical Press, which published Freud’s works. He was also employed by the Frankfurter Zeitung and had even tried, largely unsuccessfully, to make “psychoanalytical films” in Berlin. After this brief foray into movie-making, he returned to publishing, working in Berlin for the Ullstein Publishing Company. Storfer had moved around Europe through Switzerland and Germany as a psychoanalyst and writer and, in December 1938, he emigrated to Shanghai to get back into the newspaper business and enjoy some Nazi-free nightlife. In 1939 he announced his intention of turning Die Gelbe Post into a weekly, then, in 1940, a bi-weekly and eventually a daily. Storfer eventually left Shanghai to settle in Melbourne.

Shanghai’s 1922 Refugee Crisis

I’ve posted before about various refugee waves and crises that hit old Shanghai….here in 1932, here in 1937 and here in 1947…1922 saw the sudden influx of a large number of White Russian refugees in sensational circumstances and is well worth remembering.

By the end of 1922 the Bolsheviks had effectively consolidated power across Russia…the civil war came to end and the Wars of Intervention forces withdrew. A flotilla left Vladivostok headed by a hero of the Russo-Japanese War Admiral Stark (below) of the White Army…30 boats, some in serious danger of sinking, 8,000 refugees crowded aboard. The boats made it down the coast to Korea where the Japanese refused to let sixteen of the boats leave due to their obvious un-seaworthiness. Those left behind stayed in the care of the Japanese Red Cross. The remaining boats with 3,000 refugees left and headed for Shanghai – two boats were lost at sea with all hands during the journey in a typhoon – the destroyer Dydymov and the transport Asia.

Despite their sufferings the refugees arrival at Shanghai was seen as problematic – the Chinese authorities and Settlement police were worried about illicit guns and ammunition on the boats that could be traded to warlords while the general view among many Shanghailanders was that they were about to be “swamped” by Russian refugees. The Chinese authorities (he was at Woosung, not yet in foreign Shanghai) ordered the ships to leave within 48 hours or be attacked. The ships did indeed have arms aboard but the Russians sold them to the Chinese army.

One of the refugee fleets dilapidated boats

Eventually most of the poor refugees stayed – about 2,000 out of the 3,000 who were non-naval or military personnel. Admiral Stark sailed out of town headed for Manila where he sold the remaining boats to raise money to support White Russian refugees – most of his crews eventually got passage to America, Stark himself went to France and then on to Finland where he died in 1928.

Shanghai easily absorbed a couple of thousand White Russians….and many, many more Russians and other refugees from across China and fleeing fascism for the remainder of its time as an International Settlement.

Scythe and the City: A Social History of Death in Shanghai

Christian Henriot’s history of death in Shanghai is now out….

About the author

Orwell’s Thoughts on Support for China in World War Two & the Closure of the Burma Road – 16th July 1940

Orwell considered the war in the Far East and the British decision to safeguard Hong Kong by closing the Burma Road to British arms supplies to China on the 16th July 1940 in his diary:

“No real news for some days, except the British semi-surrender to Japan, i.e. the agreement to stop sending war supplies along the Burma Road for a stated period. This however is not so definite that it could not be revoked by a subsequent government. F.* thinks it is the British government’s last effort (i.e. the last effort of those with investments in Hong Kong, etc.) to appease Japan, after which they will be driven into definitely supporting China. It may be so. But what a way to do things – never perform a decent action until you are kicked into it and the rest of the world has ceased to believe that your motives can possibly be honest.’**

*F. is thought to be Tosco Fyvel, a Jewish emigre and Zionist of Orwell’s acquaintance.

** Britain did close the Burma Road to British arms traffic after Japan threatened Hong Kong – it did show the desire to safeguard the Colony and lack of support for China against Japanese attack – a contemporary retelling of the tale below…

Uyghur Nation: Reform and Revolution on the Russia-China Frontier

David Brophy’s Uyghur Nation adds to the growing shelf of Turkestan studies…all that helps to improve understanding and raise awareness of issues in the region is, of course, helpful….

The meeting of the Russian and Qing empires in the nineteenth century had dramatic consequences for Central Asia’s Muslim communities. Along this frontier, a new political space emerged, shaped by competing imperial and spiritual loyalties, cross-border economic and social ties, and the revolutions that engulfed Russia and China in the early twentieth century. David Brophy explores how a community of Central Asian Muslims responded to these historic changes by reinventing themselves as the modern Uyghur nation. A diverse diaspora of Muslims from China’s northwest province of Xinjiang spread to Russian territory and became enmeshed with national and transnational discourses of identity among Russia’s Muslims. In the tumult of the Bolshevik Revolution, the rhetoric of Uyghur nationhood emerged as a rallying point. A shifting alliance of constituencies invoked the idea of a Uyghur nation to secure a place for itself in Soviet Central Asia and to spread the revolution to Xinjiang. Although its existence was contested in the fractious politics of the 1920s, in the 1930s the Uyghur nation achieved official recognition in the Soviet Union and China. Grounded in archives from across Eurasia, Uyghur Nation provides crucial background to the ongoing contest for the history and identity of Xinjiang.

Shanghai April 1937 – Time to Buy a Gas Mask