From the South China Morning Post this week in: 1970 This was the week of the 'big drench', when Hong Kong was 'deluged with 15 inches [381mm] of rain in four days', 10 inches of which fell in just over an hour on May 13, a Wednesday. The Observatory reported that the downpour was the heaviest since June 12, 1966, when 15.06 inches were recorded in one day and when flash floods claimed '50 dead, 11 presumed dead and 30 missing'. This time, two people died, two were injured and a four-year-old boy was missing. 'The storm's first victim was a 14-year-old girl who fell from a hillside into a nullah in Sai Kung.' The second victim was a 40-year-old woman, Ng Hoi-hing, whose body was recovered after she was washed away by floodwaters in Diamond Hill. Among the worst affected were squatters living in huts on a hill off Shiu Fai Terrace who had to be forcibly evacuated. Only about 150 of the 257 shack-dwellers took refuge in the temporary accommodation offered in the former naval dockyard in Queensway. Classes and exams were postponed, four flights were cancelled at Kai Tak and vehicles stalled in flooded streets, with a photo showing two cars stranded in Princess Margaret Road, Kowloon. Public transport was in 'chaos' and the Kowloon Motor Bus Company said it carried only about half of its average daily number of passengers. But the rains had boosted reservoirs, bringing an end to drought in the New Territories, where about a quarter of the rice crop had been saved. Jacques Masson, a Hong Kong-based businessman and one of 'the world's biggest gem dealers', was on the verge of clinching a lucrative deal. 'Shortly before leaving Kai Tak on a business trip', he said the actor Richard Burton had 'set his eyes on the flame blue 375-carat Royal Sapphire of Burma in Hongkong, which is reputed to be worth more than $2 million' (The report did not specify whether HK$ or US$). The sapphire, 'the largest and most valuable gem ever brought into Hongkong', was to be 'carved into the image of Burton's actress wife, vivacious Elizabeth Taylor'. Mr Masson said Burton's lawyer had written to him two weeks' earlier with an offer to buy the sapphire. He declined to disclose the price. He was on his way to California 'to make contact with an expert who had carved the images of Lincoln and Washington'. If the deal with Burton was not finalised by October, 'he would put the sapphire up for public bidding at a Geneva auction'. Burton and Taylor, for whom he had recently bought a US$1 million 69.42-carat diamond from Cartier in New York, had been seen 'yelling at each other in public', the Post reported. 'The purchase of the expensive sapphire could be an indication that they were 'patching up'.' [Burton probably did not buy the gem. A sapphire of the same name and weight was sold by Christie's in Geneva for SF310,000 in November that year.] The Marquis of Trinkplatz, heir apparent to the Dukedom of Pontevedro, wrote a letter, stating his regret at a report claiming 'that my present visit to Hongkong is a 'hoax'.' The marquis said he would leave the colony that day and return on May 26, as he was 'very anxious' to attend the opening performance of the Garrison Players' production of Oh, What a Lovely War. 'Those familiar with my country will know that the period 1914 to 1918 was one of the most glorious in our history when, thanks to the supreme valour of my people, we managed to repel the invaders and save Pontevedro from utter destruction,' Marquis Trinkplatz wrote. The Great War took its toll on Pontevedro, he reminded the Post. Among its horrors was the fate of its national anthem, It's a Long Way to Pontevedro, 'which had been stolen and corrupted by Irish soldiers'. A photograph was published of the marquis, taken in 'the Royalty Suite Hongkong's hotel', under the headline, 'ME - A HOAX?'