Tearful HK farewell at Government House

Tearful HK farewell at Government House

By Paul Majendie

HONG KONG (Reuter): As the band struck up "Amazing Grace", twilight crept over the lawn of Government House and Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten wiped a tear from his eye yesterday.

And when the band launched into the stirring "Land of Hope and Glory" you could hear a pin drop among the great and the good of the British colony.

They had gathered to say farewell at the last elegant garden party marking Queen Elizabeth's birthday before Hong Kong is handed back to China next week after 156 years.

The emotion was palpable on the face of Patten, who freely admitted he would need his handkerchief to wipe away the tears for the official farewell at his home for the past five years.

As the sun set on a perfect tropical evening, heir to the throne Prince Charles stood proud and impassive beside Patten and Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

The skyscrapers that dwarf this tiny remnant of a once immense empire glittered in the evening light. Crickets chirped in the bushes of the colonial mansion's grandiose grounds.

As the Union Jack flag was lowered for the last time from the mast atop Government House, Patten looked up, his face a picture of mixed emotions.

Prince Charles, attending one of the last great acts of empire just 100 years after his great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria celebrated her golden jubilee and Britain ruled the waves, did not glance up as the flag was lowered. It may have been too painful a moment.

Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister who negotiated the handover of Hong Kong to Beijing, confessed: "If they play "The Day they gavest Lord is ended" at the end, it will be very emotional."

Instead a lone bagpiper struck up "Afore ye Go" and the 600 guests, from bishops to billionaires, gulped back the tears and reached for their handkerchiefs.

The British, who once boasted 400 million subjects around the world and conquered the globe with missionary zeal, were determined to end their time in Hong Kong with elegance and style.

First came a reception in Government House with tables laden down with smoked salmon canapes. The guests sipped champagne under the glittering chandeliers.

Then everyone, from British government ministers to Hong Kong Democrats fearful of their future under China, traipsed into the garden for the massed bands to "beat the retreat".

In the twilight of a once mighty empire, nostalgia reigned supreme.

Democrat Martin Lee was in reflective mood: "It is the fear that we may lose some of our freedoms that makes people so nervous. There is one thing lacking in China -- the rule of law -- and this was given to us by the British."

But perhaps it was Paddy Ashdown, leader of Britain's centrist Liberal Democrats, who best summed up the sense of pride, nervousness and nostalgia among the expatriates.

Ashdown, who spent three years in Hong Kong in the Sixties learning Chinese, said: "I am undoubtedly sad but that's progress. Hong Kong thrives on risk and this is the biggest risk of the lot."