bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

THE Governor has unwittingly given an added push to the now-legendary Craig Shergold chain letter, and appears to have created something even more popular than Chairman Mao's ''little red book''.

  First, some background. Craig Shergold is a boy in Surrey, England, who had cancer about six years ago.

  To give himself something to occupy his mind, he decided he'd try to beat the world record for get-well cards by starting a chain letter.

  This asked people to send a get-well card to him and then copy the letter and send it on to 10 friends.

  The Guinness Book of Records states he'd received 33 million by 1991.

  But his appeal started six years ago. He's now 14 and cured, thanks to the intervention of an American philanthropist billionaire. So thanks, but don't send him anything.

  As we reported in August, Chris Patten was sent one, and being a good-natured chap, he sent copies to other high-powered types.

  We've seen a number of branches from the tree since then, one with nine names on it, including Dah Sing's David Wong, Horace Knight of the Vocational Training Council, and Legco's Samuel Wong.

  One entertaining angle is that it appears that the Governor re-typed the letter in his own style.

   His letter to Anson Chan began: ''Though I realise we're all very busy . . .'', which sounds very much like Patten English, better known as Panglish.

  Arithmetic says that theoretically, Chris Patten has created one billion Craig Shergold letters.

  If true, this means the Governor's effort has triggered a bigger print run than that of the red-covered Quotations from the Works of Mao Zedong, which stands at 800 million copies, and is a third of the way to overtaking the Bible as the world's most widely distributed literary work.

   Gold fishy  ALSO in the mail, Nigerian ''entrepreneurs'' keep sending dozens of letters to the territory every week offering risk-free profits if you let them borrow your bank account for some petty scam they've dreamed up.

  Someone calling himself Prince Chuks has come up with an interesting one. He sent the owner of a Kowloon Bay business a letter inviting him to buy gold and precious stones.

  A bag of gold weighing 100 kilograms could be yours for U$120,000. Quite a bargain - you could resell it immediately for US$1.3 million.

  Prince Chuks' address looks like an apartment block on a housing estate in the middle of nowhere.

  Let's hope it's got reinforced floors, as he's going to need a lot of gold in stock if he's offering deals as great as this one.

   Sun Hung Kind  SUN Hung Kai Properties directors surely are a strange bunch.

  Despite pushing profits up 43 per cent to HK$6.7 billion last year, the directors, led by Walter Kwok, cut their own collective pay from $4.1 million to $2.9 million, a fall of 30 per cent.

  Worse, they more than doubled the amount of money they gave to charitable causes to $13.9 million, according to the annual report published yesterday.

  They may know about property development, but they are sadly lacking in knowledge of other aspects of business behaviour.

  Hot pursuits  WE thought China was largely devoid of air-con factories, but apparently it's not.

  One expert reprimanded us, adding that Chinese couples always have the air-con on in their bedrooms so they can snuggle up under the duvet even in the baking summer, which could have awkward implications for the one-child policy.

   Kunming plan  CHINESE state-owned enterprises are getting closer to international standards.

  At an interview yesterday with officials of Kunming Machine Tool Co, the next mainland-incorporated firm to be listed in Hong Kong, it became clear that anything remotely sensitive - or useful - is being kept secret until the prospectus comes out.

  Most Chinese company officials will tell you anything you want to know once you've managed to get hold of them.

  Advisers like Baring Brothers and CorporateLink are obviously earning their money.

  Lumbered VICTORIA Lum, managing director of Asia-American Planning, has started an interesting newsletter called The Lum Report.

  It's got all sorts of investment advice. But don't run away with the idea that Victoria Lum is an investment adviser.

  Because neither she nor her company are registered with the Securities and Futures Commission, which means that if they were to give investment advice they would be in for a $20,000 fine plus $200 a day.

  When we spoke to her yesterday she described herself as ''registering''.

  Guilt-edged  THE Visa people yesterday launched a competition entitled: ''Visa, it's Our Treat'', whereby 25 prize-winners can get a cash prize equal to the total of their last 12 months' Visa bills.

  They're trying to make you buy more things on your card, and Visa's Ray Chan had some suggestions: ''Diamond necklaces; the latest stereo system; the most advanced computer equipment; even a luxury car.''   We've got a countersuggestion: a competition for people who can't pay their Visa bills after being lured on a spending binge by credit-card literature.

  Twenty-five prize-winners would get their debts written off in a competition called: ''Visa, it's Our Fault''.



Governor's pen eclipses Helmsman