Hal Boyle assina vários artigos sobre Macau para a agência noticiosa Associated Press em Fevereiro de 1946. Seleccionei dois publicados no San Pedro News Pilot, um jornal da Califórnia (EUA). Versam sobretudo sobre o ópio e o jogo.
Sin on a Crutch Macao, 'Monte Carlo of Far East,' Orient's Run-Down Pleasure Haven
lf ever there was a place that looked like sin on a crutch it is Macao, sometimes fancily referred to as the “Monte Carlo of the Far East.” Less than a century ago this little five square mile Portuguese colony rivaled Hongkong and Canton as the trade center of south China. The coming of deep draft ships, however, robbed its shallow harbor of major commercial importance. Now its industry is founded on fishing and prostitution, incense sticks and opium, firecrackers and gambling. And games of chance are probably the government's chief single source of revenue. Macao, considering its long proud history, is somewhat on its uppers at present. It is a mixture resembling Concord, Mass., Reno and Coney Island - with Chinese overtones. With its neon lights and picturesque old avenues shaded by elderly banyan trees, the colony resembles nothing more than a stately old southern home in Natchez turned into a hot dog stand. Portugal near the close of the 15th century was the iirst European maritime power to open direct trade relations with China and Macao was founded about 1557 after an earlier trade station had been destroyed. It lies about 50 miles west of Hong Kong on the southern tip of Chung Shan island district in the Pearl river estuary.
Claims to Fame
It has many claims to historical fame —and likes to emphasize them. For centuries it was one of the chiel trade centers with China and Japan and the fountainhead of Catholocism in the Far East, serving as a headquarters.for missionaries. It was here the first European hospital in the Far East was founded in 1569. Caleb Cushing also signed the first American treaty with China here in the “Queen of Heaven” temple in 1844 and in 1864 the colony built the first lighthouse in China. Dr. Sun Yet-Sen, China’s George Washington and founder of the first republic, also practiced medicine as a young man in Macao’s Chinese hospital. Macaons like to recall that the first observations by which Paul De Lamanon, French socialist, was able to prove that the intensity of magnetic force varies at dilferent parts of the earth were made here and in Tenerife between 1785 and 1787. They also boast that while Portugal was under Spanish rule from 1581 to 1640 Macao alone among Portuguese possessions never hauled down the national flag. They even beat off a 19-ship amphibious landing by Dutch forces in 1622, thanks to the artillery generalship of a Jesuit priest.
Past Glories Meaningless
All these past glories mean little now to tired Hong Kong and Canton businessmen who like to use Macao for relaxing week-end parties to which their wives rarely receive invitations. There are more brothels than schools in Macao and more gambling parlors than brothels. Both the opium traffic and gambling concessions, are government monopolies. All gambling houses are run by a single company which residents of Macao estimate pays the government about $1,225,000 (American dollars) yearly for its franchise—about 20 per cent of entire government revehues. Most gambling establishments are cheap, sordid dives patronized now largely by Chinese since the revival of piracy made it risky for Hong Kong plungers to carry large sums to Macao. The government is sensitive over criticism of its “wide open” policy and in an official guide book prints the following remarkable defense: “Macao has been accused of thriving on taxes on gambling but this is a mistaken view, for the part of the revenue which is derived from strict control of gambling is devoted to important public works and improvements and to the sifpport of charitable institutions.” Disgruntled losers at gaming tables put Macao’s philosophy more crisply: “Ninety per cent for the Devil —ten per cent to the Lord.”
Macao Proud of Wide-Open' Rep
Macao takes considerable pride in being the widest open little colony in the Far East. Its people are kind and have matchless hospitality. They lead quiet lives and like to think of their patch of land on the south China coast as a little transplanted Riviera having the same sunny charm as the Mediterranean.
They look hurt when you speak disparagingly of the gambling and opium dens which are the colony’s chief tourist bait. “Why do you call them opium dens and gambling dens?” said one resident. “In your own country you don’t speak of grocery store dens.of ice cream soda dens. Then why speak of opium dens? “Opium is just another commodity like groceries or ice cream sodas. Its something you just take for granted among the Chinese. I only know of three Europeans here who have the opium habit.”
In normal times Macao obtains opium for its thriving narcotics trade from Persia. There isn’t enough space in this five square mile colony to grow it here. Preferring 5-cent cigars myself to opium, I passed up an invitation to spend an evening curled up with a Chinese pipe in one of the colony’s dream parlors. Instead, I visited a half-dozen of the scores of gambling houses that furnish the Macao government much of its income.
Sin Lacks Glamor
They were hardly worth the journey. Advertised sin always is tawdry and lacking in glamor, and I ended up the evening convinced as I have been all through life that gambling your own money is the dullest of pastimes. Most of the gambling spots are concentrated in the Chinese quarter and you walk through dirty flamboyant streets to reach them, streets crowded with beggars and merchants and strange smells. You push through a swinging door and enter a brightly lit room, bare except for a mixed group of Chinese and Europeans grouped around the gaming table. They are playing fantan in dreary silence. Opposite the players sit a number of elderly Chinese who operate the game. They have faces colored like carved ivory, stained in tea leaves. Before each is a square with each side numbered. You place your bet on one side - one, two, three or four. At the other end of the table another gambler presses an inverted bowl down on a large pile of markers and pushes it forward. He lifts the bowl and begins removing the captured markers four at time with a small wand. Whatever number of markers is left for his final sweep of the wand one, two, three or four - wins.
Tedious Game
It is difficult to see how such a tedious game holds any excitement, yet the Chinese play it for hours. I watched one ragged woman coolie play for half an hour - a dime at a time - until her money war gone. Her face showed neither resentment nor regret, only apathy. Chairs were placed around a railing on the floor above the table and leisurely ladies lowered their bets down in small baskets. The most elaborate gambling spot in town is a cabaret at the modern Central hotel. There you can drink and dance between bets, which are collected by a small Chinese girl. The game is “highlow” dice and results are flashed in neon lights over the heads of the dancers. "But the whisky was awful, the dance band was bad, the hired Chinese girl dancers stepped on my toes and gambling is a terrible sin anyway. I lost ten dollars. And besides, the management didn’t give me a free ticket back to Hongkong. They used to do that when you came into the cabaret in peacetime, so that if you lost all your money you wouldn’t kill yourself in Macao.
In San Pedro News Pilot, 9.2.1946
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