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1962 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public
ServiceBIOGRAPHY of Horace and Lawrence Kadoorie
LAWRENCE KADOORIE, born in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong in 1899, and his brother HORACE, born in London in 1902, have followed in their generation the pattern of successful business and practical philanthropy set by their father and his brother. The sons of Laura Mocatta Kadoorie and Sir Wily Kadoorie, K.B.E. (created 1926), they attended the Cathedral School in Shanghai, Ascham St. Vincents at Eastbourne and Clifton College, Bristol, England. LAWRENCE went on to study law at Lincoln's Inn, London.
Their father, moving from Baghdad in 1880 to India and then China, became a British subject and founded in Hong Kong and Shanghai the firm of E. S. Kadoorie & Co. which later became Sir Wily Kadoorie & Sons, engaged in industrial finance. The benefactor of schools and hospitals in Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, France, Portugal, England, India and China, he was the first to provide educational facilities for girls in many parts of the Middle East. His brother, Sir Ellis Kadoorie, founded agricultural colleges in Palestine and several schools in China and Hong Kong.
Assuming leadership of the family enterprises upon their father's death in 1944, LAWRENCE and HORACE KADOORIE added many new business, civic and charitable activities and, in 1951, focused their acumen and generosity upon a new type of venture in philanthropy. Within 10 years, contributions in excess of HK$16 million were made to this experiment. Working in complete cooperation with Government, they provided the means whereby some 75,000 families of refugees and struggling cultivators in 1,092 villages in the New Territories of the Colony of Hong Kong could become productive.
Hong Kong had not yet recovered from the ravages of war when political change on the Mainland of China, in 1949, brought an influx of refugees with which the Colony was not prepared to cope. Eventually to number over 1.5 million, the refugees were more than to quadruple the population of an area of 400 square miles of which only 50 square miles were arable. Despite the best efforts of Government, religious and welfare organizations, doing what they could with limited resources to house, feed, clothe and provide medical services for the refugees, the resettlement problem grew daily more acute. More help was needed quickly if those who had sought sanctuary—many leaving everything they owned behind—were not to doubt the alternative they had chosen.
Familiar with the potential for industrial development, the KADOORIE brothers could predict that an upsurge of industry would in time provide employment for skilled workers and laborers. But the many refugees who were farmers, farm laborers and older folk, unable to adjust easily to a new environment, created a special problem. Through the New Territories Benevolent Society, founded by LAWRENCE and HORACE KADOORIE to establish small hospitals and clinics in the rural districts of the Colony, the brothers came to know intimately the human problems of resettlement of these groups. Lacking capital to acquire land or stock, loan money to assist them in the only way of life they knew, and energy or experience to follow new vocations, they urgently needed an opportunity to become productive. At the same time, Hong Kong's greatly increased population required more food.
On September 28, 1951, the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association (K.A.A.A.) was established, initially designed to assist the very poor who sought to make their living from farming and livestock raising. In turning over ideas as to the best line of action, the KADOORIE brothers had sought the advice and assistance of Government, then in the process of developing agricultural services for the Colony. An agricultural extension venture combining the knowledge and machinery of Government and the means of the KADOORIES was decided upon and a small committee formed to direct the Association: Original members were LAWRENCE and HORACE KADOORIE, Norman F. Wright, the Agricultural Officer, and Woo Ting-sang, Assistant Agricultural Officer, of the Hong Kong Government. In 1953, on his appointment as Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, W.J. Blackie was invited to join. Later, the Senior Veterinary Officer, Lt. Col. J.C. Rix, and A. Boyd-Cowan, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (A.F.F.D.) became members. As those men in Government have retired from service their replacements have been appointed to the Association.
With this composition of the Committee, as the KADOORTE brothers stated in a letter of appreciation addressed to Mr. Blackie in 1956, "the difficulties inherent in coordinating official conservatism with the impatience of private procedure were overcome."
Activity in the beginning was limited to distribution of pigs and chickens to poor refugees to establish them as livestock raisers. Some assistance was also given in control of livestock disease. Sties and chicken runs were established and breeding stock provided at several schools in the New Territories to allow practical instruction in animal husbandry. The Association also leased a small and dilapidated farm, which was improved by construction of permanent sties, poultry pens and sheds, and a permanent water supply and stocked with purebred pigs and poultry from Australia to serve as a main breeding center. Initial emphasis was on the Pig Plan, chosen because pigs grow more rapidly than other farm animals and pork is always in demand in Hong Kong. The KADOORIES were also mindful of the positive psychological effect which seeing their capital—e.g., pigs—grow could have on farm folk.
The first farmers directly to benefit were 16 families living near the experimental farm who saw the improvements being made and asked for assistance. Receiving free gifts of pigs, the villagers erected their own simple sties, using interest-free loans of HK$26.20 per person, and were given second interest-free loans to purchase sufficient feed until returns were realized from the sale of weaner pigs. For the second group of 14 squatter families who had been moved from Homantin to a new location, a similar formula was applied, excepting HK$112 was provided for better sties and, upon repayment of the initial loans, further substantial interest-free loans were made to open up additional land and provide irrigation for extension of vegetable growing.
Plans were kept flexible to meet varying conditions. At Lam Ti, on land suitable for six families, a bungalow and six double sties were built and each refugee family settled there received three pigs and interest-free feed loans for nine months. Later, additional sties and a cowshed were added, and, when the farm became firmly established, still more sties were erected to accommodate porkers. At Castle Peak, 20 families were given sties and two pigs each, interest-free feed loans and a cement-surfaced connecting road to the shore as a gift to the village. Another group of 13 families of vegetable growers in poor circumstances were given 16 pens, pigs and interest-free loans; using their waste vegetables to feed the pigs and the pig manure to fertilize their vegetables, the people benefited both from another source of income and improved vegetable production. On the island of Kat O, six double sties were built for a breeding center and stocked with 12 sows and a boar, and villagers with approved sties received 100 pigs as free gifts and feed loans for six months.
Having decided to purchase livestock for K.A.A.A. units from Government sources, the Association supplied 111 pedigree Berkshires from Japan for breeding on Government stations, maintaining also a large stock of several Western breeds on their own farms. Sows and weaners were given to the Leprosarium and to orphanages. For boar keepers willing to sell inferior local boars to butchers, the Association made up the additional amount required to purchase better type boars from Government stock and presented a harness designed by the Agriculture Department to replace the customary wire or rope. Seeing these activities, farmers who had customarily only fattened weaners from China for market began to show an interest in stockbreeding.
Poultry projects were tested. On the island of Lantao, 47 families received 470 pullets and 47 cocks; at Ah Lam Cheun, a village of 30 families received 330 pullets and 30 cocks; the school for the deaf, the Stanley Boy's Club and Aberdeen Industrial Training School received poultry stock.
For rice and vegetable growers, land was opened by terracing and irrigation systems installed—the first project was an interest-free loan of HK$7,800 for opening an area of three acres to be repaid from the end of the first harvest at HK$20 per family per month. Interest-free loans enabling rice farmers to buy balanced artificial fertilizer were instituted on a trial basis in the 1953-54 season with technical assistance and direction from the A.F.F.D. Six three-inch portable pumps given to the A.F.F.D. were used with great success during dry periods and also to help pond fisheries by emptying dams for cleaning and repairs. Loans were made to fish raisers to repair broken and damaged walls and restock ponds with thousands of fish fry.
Whereas assistance originally was given only to hardship cases, the Association decided, in 1953, to step up the pace of development by including established farmers in slightly better economic position. By then, numerous requests were coming in from individuals, institutions and village groups and the major sources of screened applications became the Agricultural Officers, district administrators and police officers in the New Territories. Meeting twice monthly, the Committee sometimes dealt with as many as 200 cases in one sitting, taking into account in each case the number of persons per family, income, farm buildings and other pertinent information.
From these early ventures emerged a plan which was followed up to mid-1954. The problem had been carefully considered before the program was started and the general principle adopted that the K.A.A.A. should not become a purely charitable organization. Though in many cases of distress outright gifts were made, recipients generally were encouraged to regard the aid as a form of subsidy, or as a loan, to help them become independent and self-supporting. Experience had now proven the validity of two other assumptions made at the outset: opportunity was needed more than direct monetary assistance, and, as far as possible, assistance should be given to village groups rather than to individuals, even while making every effort to foster individual ownership and incentive.
The Association paid more attention to sties than houses on the premise that they were money-earning and, as income improved, a family would fix its house rather than see their pigs living better. Recognizing a need for more permanent sties both to encourage pride of possession and good management, standard granite block structures with corrugated asbestos roofing, costing HK$1,500 each, had been provided on an experimental basis. Given free or paid for up to 25 per cent of the cost if recipients' circumstances permitted, the expense limited broad extension of such sties. The solution, permitting expansion of the Pig Plan to more villages, was the design by K.A.A.A. of a prefabricated portable sty made of concrete slabs and costing only HK$300 for a single sty or HK$575 for a double sty. Also, farmers who desired to repair suitable existing sties or build new ones of approved design were assisted with loan money to purchase cement and building materials.
By the end of May 1954, the K.A.A.A. had benefited 8,695 families in the New Territories. An inquiry conducted later on the first groups assisted found the average monetary possession per family to be under HK$100 but, with the practical help given, the average earning power increased from eight to 10 times.
Following the publication of the "Agricultural Policy Report" by Mr. Blackie in 1954, the Association's policy was broadened to give full assistance to the A.F.F.D. and the District Administration of the New Territories in coordinated plans of agricultural development. In acknowledgement of this close working relationship, three members of the Association were appointed to the Government's Rural Development Committee.
Fertilizers, insecticides, sprayers, water pumps, threshers and improved strains of seeds—all obtainable from K.A.A.A.—together with interest-free loans were judiciously- used to increase rice and vegetable production on small holdings. In 1955, the fertilizer program alone was increased more than seven-fold, enabling 1,433 families to apply fertilizer to over 916 acres of land. Assistance also was given to diversification of agriculture by introduction of new crops, such as pineapples, and the planting of village orchards.
Hundreds of cattle were given to farmers in need of work animals. Goats also were distributed. A Second Livestock Plan was built around poor widows of farmers in the New Territories, benefiting over 10,000 as of late 1959. If a widow chose pigs, she usually was presented with four sties and two pregnant sows or three gilts and three porkers. Some chose a working animal, and others too old to keep pigs or use working animals received two cocks and 18 hens. Each widow's obligations were to repay the interest-free feed loans at prescribed times, to adhere rigidly to advice given by officers of the A.F.F.D. and, though all livestock were inoculated against major diseases, to report immediately any animal sickness.
This and other K.A.A.A. efforts, with the A.F.F.D. supplying scientific and extension skills and the Association supplying the finance, fostered a thriving pig industry and first-class breeding stock in the Colony. In 1951, Hong Kong produced about eight per cent of its pork requirements and in 1959, despite the increased demand of an ever growing population, 28 per cent was contributed by local farmers.
Years of experimenting at the K.A.A.A. farm produced a strain of Pekin ducks from which farmers could increase their annual income 33 per cent. The Pekin duck provides better quality meat and body fat than the rather tough and stringy local ducks, and grows faster, enabling farmers to produce six batches per annum compared with 4.5 batches of the local species. Similarly, an exceptionally good eating bird was developed from a New Hampshire and Wai Chow cross which takes only 90 days from birth to marketing, as compared with 135 days for a local chicken, and weighs more. A special project was the extension of these fine ducks and chickens to 198 farming families in 145 villages for breeding purposes.
While continuing crop and animal husbandry work, the Association greatly increased help to village enterprise by improving irrigation and domestic water supplies, dams, irrigation channels, wells and water storage reservoirs. Substantial assistance was directed to building or improving access roads and paths, bridges, piers, drainage and protective works, such as river embankments, seawalls, culverts and floodgates. Orchard gates, compost pits, playing fields, threshing floors, rain shelters, concrete fencing posts, houses and repairs to existing houses also were provided as the need warranted.
For these local public works, District Officers and Agricultural Officers were asked to put up lists of projects requiring an issue of cement and other construction materials, which were approved by the irrigation engineer and the agricultural experts on the Committee. Free gifts of cement were then made to villages through District Officers, who were responsible for transport, distribution, inspection of completed work and maintenance. Construction was generally done by the villagers, except where special skills were required. Between 1952 and 1959, a total of 168,513 bags of cement (8,425 tons), in addition to iron bars, steel girders, wood, filters, galvanized iron pipes, other construction materials and substantial cash grants were issued to over 1,000 villages in the New Territories for such works. Improvements mainly have provided rapid access from villages to fields and main roads and controlled water supply.
Having previously concentrated on schemes in farming areas with road access, K.A.A.A. aid, after 1955, was extended to more distant and less accessible areas. The Association also started experiments into the farming of marginal land, opening at Pak Ngau Shek a farm to provide nursery planting material and livestock for its many projects and to demonstrate that high country can be developed for farm production. A special interest was taken in major community projects of farm improvement as a whole, based on proper utilization of soil and water resources.
In addition to these organized efforts to improve farming and livestock production, the K.A.A.A. helped many hundreds of residents of the New Territories in misfortune, whether the result of typhoon, fire, sickness or overwhelming economic difficulties. The gifts were always practical and aimed toward rehabilitation of the family as an earning unit of the community.
From the beginning of the program to the end of 1955, loan money advanced by the K.A.A.A. in individual amounts of HK$50 up to several thousands of dollars totalled about HK$1 million. The only other money available for small loans to members of rural Cooperative Societies at reasonable rates came from the Vegetable Marketing Organization and later a sum of HK$450,000 was set aside as a revolving fund under the J. E. Joseph Trust. For farmers and fishermen outside of cooperative organizations there was only the moneylender until K.A.A.A. came into being.
After 1953, when established farmers were included in the program, requests for short-term interest-free loans grew to such an extent that it became impossible for the KADOORIE organization to manage their administration. Because interest-free loans were in many cases the best form of assistance, the Association decided to continue the fund but to set up a new administrative machinery. The K.A.A.A. and its small governing committee composed of financial and technical experts had operated on the principle that help, to be effective, must be given promptly. Any new organization, the Association felt, must also be able to investigate cases and make and execute committee decisions quickly.
With these considerations in mind, the KADOORIE brothers offered HK$250,000 to the Hong Kong Government to form a loan fund provided (1) Government added a similar amount to the Fund, (2) the Fund be used to provide interest-free loans to farmers for all matters connected with animal husbandry and agriculture, (3) extension services of the A.F.F.D. be available to assist in field investigations and other technical matters, and (4) additional staff be attached to the A.F.F.D. to deal with administration and finance.
In August 1955, the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid (Loan) Fund (K.A.A.(L)F.) came into being under statutory authority. The Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry became Trustee of the Fund and ex officio Chairman of a Committee of Management, which included as its first members the present members of the K.A.A.A. Off to a flying start, the Committee met 11 times from August 4 to December 31, 1955, considered 960 applications and approved 625. Decisions, however, were made only after careful field work by officers of A.F.F.D. who were in close contact with farmers. In 1957, the Government made a further contribution of HK$750,000, giving the Fund a capital of HK$ 1,250,000.
Loans were made for all aspects of farming. For livestock feed (to borrowers other than widows), seeds and fertilizer, flood damage assistance, livestock improvement plan, and boar service charges the loan period was six to eight months. A maximum loan period of two years could be given for livestock purchase and housing (other than widows), fishponds, building material, land development, plant pest control and farm equipment. Loans normally did not exceed HK$2,000; average requests ranged from HK$200 to HK$300. The greater amount of loan money was provided for livestock purchase and feeding, and the largest number of applications were for seeds and fertilizers. As of December 31, 1959, after four years and five months of operation, 16,742 applications had been considered and 13,399 loans issued totalling HK$2,156,766.92, of which 10,027 had been repaid in full in an amount of HK$1,053,608.92.
In his 1959 report on K.A.A.A., Mr. Blackie states of the Fund:
"The K.A.A.(L)F., its organization and administration, is unique in its businesslike approach to the problems of peasant farming. In four years it has played a profound part in the life of New Territories people out of all proportion to its size—a part which is not measured alone in terms of additional returns, important as these are. It has kept farmers going when it seemed likely they would be forced out of business by depressed prices following gluts of Mainland produce; it has provided the only practical answer to indebtedness following borrowing from moneylenders at high interest charges; it has allowed refugee farmers and other poor people assisted by the K.A.A.A. to build on their capital gifts; it has allowed the free trade principles of Hong Kong to remain in being as far as farmers and fishermen are concerned, because without the Fund farmers would have been forced out of business, or Government compelled to create subsidies or price protection policies at variance with Hong Kong philosophy. It is perhaps unnecessary to remark on the political and administrative importance of the Fund, as indeed of the activities of the Association as a whole, under the special circumstances of the Colony."
In the family tradition, both LAWRENCE and HORACE KADOORIE have been active, as well, in the development of land, hotels, electricity supply and engineering and major construction work in the Far East, particularly in the Colony of Hong Kong. In addition, LAWRENCE has served on the Hong Kong Executive and Legislative Councils, the Board of Education and many other committees, while HORACE has taken a keen interest in developing tourism in Hong Kong. In recognition of their charitable and social work they were created Chevaliers de la Legion d'Honneur in 1939, and HORACE was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1956.
LAWRENCE, married in 1939 to Muriel Gubbay of Hong Kong, is the father of one daughter, Rita Laura, born in 1940, and a son, Michael David, born in 1941. A photography and sports car enthusiast, he enjoys travel and is a discerning collector of Chinese works of art. HORACE has devoted his leisure to agriculture and gardening, is also an authority on ancient Chinese ivory carvings and has illustrated his extensive collection in a seven-volume book, The Art of Ivory Sculpture in Cathay.
In Shanghai, HORACE was for many years President of the Jewish School, founded the Jewish Youth Association Center, a camp and summer program for boys and girls, and was a member of the Boy Scout Council. He helped form a committee to care for some 20,000 European refugees who arrived in Shanghai from Central Europe before the outbreak of World War II. In Hong Kong, he is President of the Jewish Recreation Club. Both brothers are trustees of Ohel Leah Synagogue, and LAWRENCE is a committee member and trustee of the Jewish Benevolent Society.
With all these activities, the brothers maintain close contact with the Aid Association that bears their name and through timely and planned assistance has brought a greater measure of hope and contentment to tens of thousands of rural folk in the New Territories. Admittedly based on enlightened self-interest, HORACE says of the effort: "We are capitalists and we would like to see every farmer a capitalist because it is only when a man has something to lose that he becomes vigilant in protection of his way of life."
The K.A.A.A. has not attempted to make or direct policy but has provided the means whereby certain aspects of Government policy have been accelerated. "The Association," LAWRENCE explains, "is really a partnership between the farmer, the Government and ourselves. We follow two criteria: the farmer must be needy and the help we give productive." Recalling his own distress when he ate rich food immediately after his wartime imprisonment by the Japanese, he adds, "We only give a farmer as much as his mind will digest."
HORACE adds that sufficient assistance must be given to be effective. If a farmer is to be given pigs, the investigation must show how many family members he has to feed and whether they could help with the pigs, whether he has a place to keep pigs and other income with which to buy feed. The brothers feel the recipient must be required to participate either in labor or in partial financing, but within his capacity, so that the new venture will thrive. If the farmer is indebted and paying usurious rates of interest, part of the assistance should be to pay off the debt, and, when the pig project is earning, the farmer can repay the loan without interest to the Association. The brothers cite with satisfaction that the Chinese farmer has not failed to honor his debt.
Any rural person or group genuinely in need may turn at any time to the Association and swift, practical help will readily be given providing the recipient is ready to help himself. The recipient's part is willingness to work, the Government's is technical aid and the Association provides financial encouragement: all three ingredients are essential, and to all three is due the success of the K.A.A.A.
August 1962
Manila
REFERENCES:
Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association. Hongkong. Reports on Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Ventures, 1954-1955.
Personal Data, Sir Elly Kadoorie & Sons. Hong Kong, June, 1961.
Articles from the Hong Kong press.
Interviews with persons in Hong Kong acquainted with the Kadoorie brothers or their agricultural enterprises.
