From the South China Morning Post this week in 1953
In a major departure from normal protocol, Government House announced that at the garden party to celebrate the birthday of Her Majesty the Queen on April 28, His Excellency the Governor and Lady Grantham would not shake hands with guests.
This, it was pointed out, followed the new procedure at garden parties at Buckingham Palace and had been adopted to save people queuing up to shake hands with the 'consequent fatigue and discomfort, particularly if the weather is warm'.
Things were hotting up in the failing armistice talks between all parties in the Korean War. The Russians were offering to intercede, but the Communists preferred the idea of an Asian intermediary. Meanwhile the Americans were trying a novel tactic to get hold of some enemy hardware. 'Reward offered to jet pilot for delivery of jet fighter,' ran the headline. They were offering $100,000 and refuge for the first Communist pilot to deliver a MIG-15 fighter into US hands.
The offer was made in leaflets dropped in South Korea and by radio beamed into Communist China and Korea. It included instructions to pilots on how to negotiate their way through the UN fighter screen without getting shot down. Stripped to its bare essentials, the MIG could out-run and out-climb American F-86 Sabre jets, which was why the Americans apparently wanted to snaffle a few. But they couldn't resist adding that their Sabres had shot down 11 MIGs for every Sabre lost in the combat.
Life was becoming uncomfortable for the 600 Catholic missionaries in China. Father Rocco Franco, who had been based at his mission in Hoiyin near Macau, was expelled after Communist allegations were made against Catholic orphanages. The Communists asked that he sign a document swearing he had not lost any of his personal property while in China. He replied that he could not do so as his typewriter had been retained by officials at Hoiyin. The typewriter wad duly returned.
Clothing advertisements used very different selling techniques in those days. The Jockey Mid-Way, a type of half-leg men's underpants, was 'perfect for every-day wear', and would 'give you the conventional leg coverage you like. Jockey fits snug as your skin, moves as you move and gives you positive masculine support. With shirts to match'.
