A week or two ago I launched my new book, 'Jack Jones, A True Friend to China'at a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society at the Helena May. This is the story of the Friends Ambulance Unit 'China Convoy' and how it distributed medical aid in China throughout the nineteen forties, as told in the FAU newsletter writings of Jack Jones, its transport director. Jack was later to write a world best selling 'Suzie Wong' story called, 'A Woman of Bangkok, beating Richard Mason to publication by just one year.
My weighty new book of 400 pages is available at the St John's Cathedral Bookstore, and soon in the USA and UK. Enquiries please to me at arhicks56@hotmail.com. The story is of course of direct relevance to Hong Kong especially as in the later years HK became the headquarters and port of access to China for the FAU.
The book includes over 500 contemporary photos, mostly never before seen, including several of Hong Kong taken by a departing FAU couple who were staying in the QMH flat of Dr Elizabeth Tang (Han Suyin) who had just completed her many splendoured novel.
An image of the cover appears below.
The China Convoy makes for a great adventure story as told by the sparkling and always scurrilous Jack Jones. It is also a rare example of men from the west immersing themselves in China but not peddling guns, drugs or bibles, nor seeking commercial or political advantage.
The FAU strongly influenced the emerging Oxfam in creating a new model for relief and development and might itself be called the first ever independent NGO working in that field. Yet this is the first book on the subject since 1947.
