One of the last major colonial enclaves on earth, Hong Kong has a special public character. Committed to commerce above all else, the colony survives and flourishes because it offers facilities for all business comers. Where profit is the ultimate yardstick, inevitably many who have less will suffer. Such deprivation is compounded in Hong Kong by the pressure of inflocking refugees, mostly from China. In 30 years the population has grown from some 650,000 to nearly 5,000,000. The scramble for living in this congested manufacturing center and merchandise mart has severely strained the Judeo-Christian values basic to British law and administration.

Into this magnet for diverse humanity in 1951 moved ELSIE HUME ELLIOTT settling among the shacks of a squatter village. A Plymouth Brethren missionary for three years in China, she and associates opened for their Hong Kong neighbors an urgently needed simple clinic and school, starting with 30 pupils in an old army tent. Ultimately she left the rigidly evangelical mission society to save the school that had been registered in her name.

For a year, depend debt on giving private lessons and teaching in other schools while tending her own, she lived on little else but bread and water until employed at Baptist College. Helped by a loan, student subsidies from government, and private contributions she now has five Mu Kuang English Schools providing kindergarten, primary and secondary education for some 4,000 poor children.

Education and welfare work involved her with Hong Kong’s workers. In letters to the newspapers in Hong Kong and England, she exposed their long working hours, crowded living conditions and rampant tuberculosis. Mincing no words—where restraint was the rule—the dauntless English woman incurred enemies and criticism for attacking authority

Elected to the Urban Council in 1963, she became something of an unofficial ombudsman. In 1966 elements of the police, stung by her charges of corruption, sought unsuccessfully to accuse Mrs. ELLIOTT of paying children to throw stones while demonstrating. Four years later she called the administration to account for allowing police a “monopoly on corruption” with its Anti-Bribery Bill. It is to the credit of the Hong Kong Government and the press that the public record has since substantiated her charges and remedial action has been vested in an official Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Believing “the only way for self-fulfillment is to serve others,” Mrs. ELLIOTT lived austerely in one room of a school building until 1972 when a benefactor donated better accommodation in the new building. She inspects her schools each morning and teaches 16 periods a week. As an Urban Council member she keeps “open office” twice weekly in two settlement blocks, handling over 300 complaints and appeals each month. Continuing to speak out and write for “those whose plight is most readily forgotten,” she cites specific cases to illustrate shortcomings in housing, welfare services, playgrounds, bus service to crowded tenement areas, or licensing for hawkers. Supporters now include businessmen, government officers and academics who concede this soft-voiced, 62-year-old lady may sometimes be excessive in her challenges but performs invaluable service in mustering public opinion for public good in government.

In electing ELSIE HUME ELLIOTT to receive the 1976 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes her crusade for justice, making the Hong Kong Government, of which she is an elected member, more responsive to the less affluent.

May I first convey my sympathy, and, I am sure, the sympathy of our Hong Kong people, to your country, and especially to the disaster victims, after the tragic losses they suffered in the recent earthquakes in the Philippines. I applaud the words of your President, Mr. Marcos, that the people will practice self-reliance to rebuild what can be rebuilt of what has been destroyed. Self-reliance is the hallmark of a strong character and of an independent nation, and I am happy that your country has the pride and determination of self-reliance. This matter is my major concern on this visit to the Philippines.

And now may I express my thanks to those who selected me for this treasured award, the Ramon Magsaysay Award. The honor is the greater because this is an Asian award and I am a European. The happiest years of my life have been spent among Asian people, and I have come to respect them for their culture and spiritual values; from them I have learned much. I regret the harm that has been done to Asian countries by European nations in the past, and I trust that understanding and closer association will result in greater harmony of East and West.

An Award like this makes one stop to evaluate oneself; it makes one feel humble that others should place such value on one’s work, and this spurs one on to greater efforts to merit the honor bestowed.

Your late President Ramon Magsaysay, whose birthday I am pleased to celebrate with you today, set an example of service to the people that we would all do well to emulate. It is to me the greatest honor that my name should be in this way associated with so fine a person as the late President.

It is cited in the Award that it is given to me in recognition of my “crusade for justice, making the Hong Kong Government. . .more responsive to the less affluent.” In this crusade I have not worked alone, but have been assisted or encouraged by people of many nationalities. To those who have shared in my work I now pay tribute; they must all share in this recognition today.

I also wish to pay tribute to my own father, who died 30 years ago. He taught me from childhood the equality of all men and how to serve the community, especially the less affluent. I only wish he could be present today to share this honor with me.

People often ask me why I do this work which appears to them so frustrating I have no real answer to that question except to say that I can think of no happier pathway in life than to lift the burden of my fellowmen. For my part, I find it difficult to understand the person who spends his life fettered with the chains of money, property, business and other perishable goods. Such people are never really happy or satisfied no matter how many their possessions, because they are always anxious and afraid. I could not enjoy such a life. Man was born with a soul that cannot be satisfied with perishable goods which only clutter his life. Man was made for man, and he can never satisfy his inmost needs until he is at peace with man, sharing the joys and sorrows of others of his kind.

In my life I have received many rewards. For example, the reward of being able to change a government policy to improve conditions for the people, and the simple reward of a smiling face or a word of thanks from people assisted in their problems. And now, to add to those joys, I am receiving this public and much-prized Award, which will encourage me to further and greater efforts for the people of Hong Kong of any other community of which I may be a member.

Within the past decade the Far Eastern Economic Review has become the most consequential journal of its kind in Asia. Providing detailed and increasingly dependable information on trade, finance, economic problems and progress, and related political trends, it has earned regard as valued reading among businessmen, government officials and scholars. 

In most of Asia, the objective careful economic reporting and analysis that is vital to development is both a new and difficult craft. Statistics often are incomplete and occasionally unreliable. Preoccupation with politics in the era of new independence has sometimes led to ignoring the hard realities of economic life upon which material achievements must be based. Private businesses and governments are often reluctant to permit probing inquiry. 

Despite these and other obstacles the editors of the Far Eastern Economic Review, RICHARD G. WILSON and KAYSER SUNG, and their staff produce each week a journal that is setting a standard for critical but fair examination of the complex spectrum of economic affairs. With their 40-odd colleagues in Hong Kong and 20 correspondents in Asia and the West, this editorial team, since 1960, has also published a Yearbook that is proving a reliable reference source for industrialists studying markets and government planners charting investments. 

RICHARD G. WILSON came to the Review as editor in 1958. Trained both in law and journalism in England and the United States, he chose to apprentice on the Financial Times of London to specialize in economic journalism. Well-traveled and scholarly, his particular interests are the problems in Africa and Asia of telescoping economic and social advance into a short span of time. 

KAYSER SUNG, who joined the Review in 1959 as Deputy Editor after 12 years with Reuters, mastered his profession during the hard years in wartime China. He was appointed concurrently Publisher and Managing Editor in 1964. His passion for research as the foundation for all reporting is becoming a distinguishing mark of the journal’s staff. An authority on such subjects as the textile industry in Asia and the terms of European trade with the Far East, he also shows himself sensitive to the human dimension. 

In their editing of the Review, WILSON and SUNG have demonstrated that journalism can play a constructive role in fostering healthy growth. Both respected for their professional and personal integrity, these two editors are making economic news significant and readable. 

In electing RICHARD GARRETT WILSON and KAYSER SUNG to receive the 1964 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Literature, the Board of Trustees recognizes their accuracy, impartiality and continuing search for facts and insights in recording Asia’s quest for economic advancement.

I feel intensely moved and honored in accepting the 1964 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Literature, which has been conferred on Richard Wilson and myself for our work with the Far Eastern Economic Review. I am also grateful for this chance to come to Manila and receive the Award in person. This gives me an opportunity to say something about the journalistic principles, which you have chosen to recognize. 

With improving communications in the world today, with the drawing together of peoples through many types of organized meetings and through private contacts, and with the rising interest in foreign countries which is felt almost everywhere, I feel that newspapers and periodicals face a new, heavy and growing responsibility. There is certainly a keen demand for simple but intelligent explanations of the complicated problems of Asia, Africa and other hitherto underdeveloped regions; for dependable information about their domestic and foreign attitudes; for comprehensible analyses and interpretation of financial, commercial and industrial developments. Good reporting serves moreover to promote the economic growth of the developing countries and the welfare of their peoples. 

In the profession of journalism I believe in writing that may be argumentative, but is nonetheless factual and balanced. This high Award has not only strengthened that belief, but has inspired me to work more vigorously to meet the requirements of the region in the journalistic field. 

On the Far Eastern Economic Review we have neither striven for public recognition nor expected any such thing. You will understand, therefore, how moved we were in Hong Kong, I and every member of our staff, to read of our election for the Ramon Magsaysay Award. It was recognition more perhaps of an effort than an achievement; the honoring of a principle of journalism, which I believe, is in conformity, whatever the shortcomings of our actual performance, with the great spirit of your late, deeply lamented President.

Within the past decade the Far Eastern Economic Review has become the most consequential journal of its kind in Asia. Providing detailed and increasingly dependable information on trade, finance, economic problems and progress, and related political trends, it has earned regard as valued reading among businessmen, government officials and scholars. 

In most of Asia, the objective careful economic reporting and analysis that is vital to development is both a new and difficult craft. Statistics often are incomplete and occasionally unreliable. Preoccupation with politics in the era of new independence has sometimes led to ignoring the hard realities of economic life upon which material achievements must be based. Private businesses and governments are often reluctant to permit probing inquiry. 

Despite these and other obstacles the editors of the Far Eastern Economic Review, RICHARD G. WILSON and KAYSER SUNG, and their staff produce each week a journal that is setting a standard for critical but fair examination of the complex spectrum of economic affairs. With their 40-odd colleagues in Hong Kong and 20 correspondents in Asia and the West, this editorial team, since 1960, has also published a Yearbook that is proving a reliable reference source for industrialists studying markets and government planners charting investments. 

RICHARD G. WILSON came to the Review as editor in 1958. Trained both in law and journalism in England and the United States, he chose to apprentice on the Financial Times of London to specialize in economic journalism. Well-traveled and scholarly, his particular interests are the problems in Africa and Asia of telescoping economic and social advance into a short span of time. 

KAYSER SUNG, who joined the Review in 1959 as Deputy Editor after 12 years with Reuters, mastered his profession during the hard years in wartime China. He was appointed concurrently Publisher and Managing Editor in 1964. His passion for research as the foundation for all reporting is becoming a distinguishing mark of the journal’s staff. An authority on such subjects as the textile industry in Asia and the terms of European trade with the Far East, he also shows himself sensitive to the human dimension. 

In their editing of the Review, WILSON and SUNG have demonstrated that journalism can play a constructive role in fostering healthy growth. Both respected for their professional and personal integrity, these two editors are making economic news significant and readable. 

In electing RICHARD GARRETT WILSON and KAYSER SUNG to receive the 1964 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Literature, the Board of Trustees recognizes their accuracy, impartiality and continuing search for facts and insights in recording Asia’s quest for economic advancement.

I feel very deeply honored by my joint election with my colleague KAYSER SUNG to the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Literature in 1964. I accept this Award with humble awareness of the honor that is done me. The Magsaysay Award is renowned throughout Asia and the world for its integrity and for the thoroughness of its selection process. This is why I feel this afternoon, along with the pleasure and pride which I take in this honor, a little bit of a burden because this is something which I will have to live up to all my life. 

Ramon Magsaysay stands out in the turbulent postwar history of Asia as a man who had the courage to go into public life and to stand continuously and devotedly for what he felt to be right. He was one of the leaders of this part of the world who did not believe in compromises but who knew only that what was right had to be done. Magsaysay was a man of the people. He knew what the people needed and he did everything to use his power to provide for these needs. It was his simplicity, his directness, his integrity and his great humanity which inspired us during his dramatic career, and which continue to inspire us today. 

His life and work are a proof to people, both here in the Philippines and in the countries across the sea in Asia, Africa, Europe and America, that it is possible for a private person who believes in national progress to go into public life and to achieve something without a loss of self respect or a diminution of honesty and good dealing. It is not easy in politics to continue to inspire your compatriots in this way, but Magsaysay showed that it could be done. What is most needed in this period in Asia’s history, when extraordinarily rapid social and economic change is under way, is the appearance in public political life of men and women who are prepared to sacrifice their own personal comfort, private convenience, and professional opportunities in order to establish an important precedent. 

People are usually willing to be bullied or ill-treated until somebody comes along who shows that it is not necessary or pre-ordained that people should put up with such things, and that with determination and spirit, a change can be made in society. It is easy to pass laws and make speeches. The difficult thing is to establish the habit of good and incorrupt public service. 

This is the light in which I, an Englishman who has lived and worked in Asia for six years, see the achievements and the importance of the late President Magsaysay. 

What is now a looming threat to the values and ideals which we all intellectually share is not so much the social stagnation of individual nations, or the varying speeds of their advance, but the vastly greater opportunities of misunderstanding and prejudice which the new media of mass communication and ease of transportation make possible. The Philippines is on the march, and so is Malaysia, and so is Indonesia. But how many Filipinos are really aware of what is happening in these neighboring countries? How many Indonesians are really aware of what is happening in their own society? How much more misunderstanding there is in these days of rapid change and of striving for a dignity, which was not always respected in the past, between England and Indonesia, between the Philippines and America! 

It is my belief, and the belief of my colleagues on the Far Eastern Economic Review, that the best thing we can do in these circumstances, the best use to which we can put the little talent we have for writing and for the organization of information in written form, is to present for an international readership a continuous documentation of Asian developments that combines seriousness with readability, healthy skepticism with warm sympathy, and which never becomes involved with any single political faith or party or any one nation. 

Because we attempt this kind of detachment, we do not ourselves take part in the individual changes going on in each Asian country it would be presumptuous to do so. What we try to do is offer an impartial account and commentary on the events that occur so that people everywhere understand clearly what is being done and what is not being done. 

I think that this aspect of journalism in Asia is now being increasingly recognized and I am very proud to have been able to play a small part in it. But I never expected to receive the honor, which you have just awarded me, and I thank you for it.

Seeking refuge in the Colony of Hong Kong following political change on the China mainland in 1949 were many farmers, farm laborers and older folk unable to compete in urban work. For them LAWRENCE and HORACE KADOORIE were the initiators and benefactors of an effective scheme of rehabilitation. These refugees were a special problem. They urgently needed capital or loan money to acquire land or stock which would enable them to make a living in the only way they knew, and the Colony needed more food. 

The KADOORIE brothers consulted with Government and a venture in agricultural extension was decided upon for which they would provide financing and official agencies the technical knowledge and facilities. To this end, the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association was established in September 1951. 

Since then, the KADOORIE brothers have contributed the equivalent of more than two million eight hundred thousand U.S. dollars to this experiment plus their own time and quiet encouragement. This provided the means for making productive some 75,000 rural families in the New Territories of the Colony of Hong Kong. 

Assistance is distinctive in being practical, prompt and flexible, and in sufficient amounts to be effective. The Association began by giving new settlements of refugees enough stock to establish them as pig or chicken raisers and interest-free loans enabling them to erect their own simple sties and buy feed. Later loans permitted construction of small irrigation systems for growing vegetables. A second livestock plan was built around poor widows in the New Territories. Villagers have been helped to use modern agricultural aids. Cement and other construction materials were distributed for building access roads and other local public works. Almost every phase of farming in the Colony has benefited.

Jointly with Government, the brothers established, in August 1955, the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid (Loan) Fund, each party contributing an equal amount and Government later quadrupling its share. Interest-free loans are made for all productive farm purposes. With few exceptions borrowers have repaid on time and in full. 

This cooperation has enabled government specialists to achieve an exceptional effectiveness in helping refugees and poor farmers in the Colony become self-supporting producers. The results are evident in a marked increase in food for the burgeoning population. Equally vital is the new sense of self-reliance among those rural families given the opportunity to stand on their own in the community. 

In electing LAWRENCE and HORACE KADOORIE to receive the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes their practical philanthropy working in partnership with Government and struggling cultivators to promote rural welfare in the Colony of Hong Kong.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award “in recognition of greatness of spirit shown in service to the people” will continue to be an inspiration to all those who have the well-being of their fellowmen at heart. To have been designated as men with this ideal is indeed a privilege for which I would express the profound appreciation and gratitude of both my brother and myself. 

Ramon Magsaysay exemplified the highest type of democratic leadership — the need to improve the people’s living standards in order to prove the correctness of the ideals of free enterprise both in agricultural development and in any industrial program. What we have tried to do is to better the lot of the farmer — the man who produces the staple necessities of life, and who so often is ignored in the rush of everyday existence. 

Your recognition today gives us the satisfaction of knowing that we have succeeded, and encourages us to strive further for the advancement of those less fortunate than ourselves. 

The philosophy behind this effort lies in the universal concept of the brotherhood of man. This thought should ever be before us, since its ideals range through the cooperation of individuals to the friendship of nations, and the peace of the world. 

I pray we may be given understanding and a broad vision, so that we may be worthy of the ideals set by your late revered President Magsaysay.

Seeking refuge in the Colony of Hong Kong following political change on the China mainland in 1949 were many farmers, farm laborers and older folk unable to compete in urban work. For them LAWRENCE and HORACE KADOORIE were the initiators and benefactors of an effective scheme of rehabilitation. These refugees were a special problem. They urgently needed capital or loan money to acquire land or stock which would enable them to make a living in the only way they knew, and the Colony needed more food. 

The KADOORIE brothers consulted with Government and a venture in agricultural extension was decided upon for which they would provide financing and official agencies the technical knowledge and facilities. To this end, the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association was established in September 1951. 

Since then, the KADOORIE brothers have contributed the equivalent of more than two million eight hundred thousand U.S. dollars to this experiment plus their own time and quiet encouragement. This provided the means for making productive some 75,000 rural families in the New Territories of the Colony of Hong Kong. 

Assistance is distinctive in being practical, prompt and flexible, and in sufficient amounts to be effective. The Association began by giving new settlements of refugees enough stock to establish them as pig or chicken raisers and interest-free loans enabling them to erect their own simple sties and buy feed. Later loans permitted construction of small irrigation systems for growing vegetables. A second livestock plan was built around poor widows in the New Territories. Villagers have been helped to use modern agricultural aids. Cement and other construction materials were distributed for building access roads and other local public works. Almost every phase of farming in the Colony has benefited.

Jointly with Government, the brothers established, in August 1955, the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid (Loan) Fund, each party contributing an equal amount and Government later quadrupling its share. Interest-free loans are made for all productive farm purposes. With few exceptions borrowers have repaid on time and in full. 

This cooperation has enabled government specialists to achieve an exceptional effectiveness in helping refugees and poor farmers in the Colony become self-supporting producers. The results are evident in a marked increase in food for the burgeoning population. Equally vital is the new sense of self-reliance among those rural families given the opportunity to stand on their own in the community. 

In electing LAWRENCE and HORACE KADOORIE to receive the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes their practical philanthropy working in partnership with Government and struggling cultivators to promote rural welfare in the Colony of Hong Kong.

The high honor you have done my brother and myself in choosing us as awardees for the Ramon Magsaysay Award 1962 is very sincerely appreciated. It gives us the great satisfaction of knowing that the work it has been our privilege to do has achieved a significance beyond our borders. It strengthens our belief in the universality of human appreciation in dealing with problems involving the suffering of individuals and masses. 

These problems are not confined to one country alone. They apply to suffering humanity everywhere and can only be put right by concerted action and goodwill transcending the bounds of nationality, race, or creed. 

To some of us is given this understanding, and the duty and ability to help. A preeminent example was set by the late President Magsaysay — a man of action, a man of the highest integrity. It is fitting to quote the four main objectives of his “State of the Nation” message, delivered on the 28th January 1957: 

(1) To safeguard the security of the nation. 

(2) To promote the moral and material well-being of the masses. 

(3) To develop and stabilize the national economy. 

(4) To improve the standards of public service. 

From his good deeds we are benefiting today, and in honoring his name we are being honored. Let us remember with humility that we but follow, and let us strive — as he did — to achieve a happier and better world. Like many of you present today, we have lived through troubled times, when the future appeared black and when we experienced trials and tribulations which beset our lives. To us this has given the knowledge that all men are of one community, which will live or perish through its weakest members. 

All have a basic and fundamental need, which can only be satisfied by doing as we would wish to be done by. Self preservation demands that we should regard each other as partners and that, as with partners, each must strive for the betterment of the other, since only in this way can we survive.

A refugee from Shanghai, where he had spent his life, Gus BORGEEST and his Chinese wife, Mona, landed in Hong Kong in 1951 with two Hong Kong dollars in their pockets. Having to start over himself, he was yet mindful of the needs of others in more dire plight in keeping with his Quaker philosophy: “My neighbor is my business.”

Formerly a production expediter in a textile mill, he soon found employment in the Government vegetable marketing and social welfare agencies. For thousands of families crowding into Hong Kong from the mainland, there then was little more in store than a food dole and shelter in a squalid squatter camp until they could be accommodated in housing the Government was beginning to construct. 

Visiting regularly these impoverished refugees, he learned that many once were proud farmers. Convinced that “welfare with best intentions was subtly enslaving them,” he determined to find a self-help route to rehabilitation that would be economically sound and restore their dignity. 

All good land was occupied, but he found an island of 200 rockstrewn acres so barren no one lived there. Leasing it from the Government for 180 Hong Kong dollars a year, he then studied books and sought the help of official agriculturists to learn about farming marginal land. 

Using savings of two frugal years to buy tents, cots, a few tools and some food, he, his wife, their adopted daughter and two refugee families transported themselves by rented sampan to the island in mid 1953. Defying the first stormy night, he renamed their new home “Sunshine Island,” symbolic of his aim to bring light to darkened lives. A typhoon washed out the first grass huts and tediously planted gardens. Financial crises were chronic. Some new arrivals were unprepared for the hard labor. But the struggling settlement survived to prove its practicality. 

As the venture became known, students from refugee colleges and Royal Air Force men volunteered to dig fishponds, build irrigation ditches and reservoirs. The Agriculture Department has given valuable advice on farming and piggery and the Forestry Department is planting 10 acres annually with trees. Tinned food, milk and cash have come from religious groups, CARE and private donors. Social welfare agencies now select and sponsor refugee families for training on “Sunshine Island.” 

Today, there is a steady turnover of refugees who are taught the skills of resourceful self-support and “graduated” with small savings to pioneer on Government-assigned plots on other marginal land in the Colony or to enter the construction industry. A modest effort in terms of the enormous refugee population, “Sunshine Island” is heartening evidence that one man can instill among his fellows the will to conquer adversity. 

With each passing year there has been material progress. But more consequential than the new stone houses replacing grass huts is the example of human concern and courage that has become the Island’s trademark.

In naming GUS BORGEEST to receive the 1961 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the Board of Trustees recognizes his establishing of a model for resettlement and rehabilitation of refugees that enhances their self-respect and productive capabilities.

Let me first greet you all Mabuhay! 

You must please forgive me if my response to the receipt of this Award is a little halting and diffident. I have been in a partial state of shock ever since I learned that this very great honor has been bestowed upon me. 

Whilst your late President, Ramon Magsaysay, was still alive, his humane work on behalf of the people of the Philippines brought world-wide fame to your country through the high-principled actions of this heroic man. He was of the stature of which the world finds only one such in each generation. His greatness of spirit, his tenderness for his people, his passion to see that everyone, however humble the person may be, should have a better and richer life in this great Republic made, and is still making, an impact that is world-wide. 

You must understand, therefore, how humble, and at the same time how proud, I feel today to have myself even remotely connected with the illustrious name of Ramon Magsaysay. 

There is another point I wish to mention, and it is this. I was amazed to learn that since the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation has been operating, the Trustees of this Foundation have chosen people from all over Asia to become recipients of this Award. To a stranger like myself, I would think that a Foundation, which was established in memory of one of the greatest citizens of the Philippines, would naturally have its awards conferred only upon citizens of the Philippines. And yet, although the Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation are all Filipino citizens, they typify the generosity of you all by selecting people of all nationalities for this tremendous honor which is sometimes called “The Nobel Prize of Asia.” During my very short stay in Manila, I find this attitude absolutely in keeping with the sincere and big-hearted hospitality that you have extended to my wife and myself. 

I can only say, once again, thank you! Salamat Po!