Free Beyond Lion Rock: The Story of Cathay Pacific Airways by Gavin Young

Hardy. From now on, de Kantzow worked like the fanatic he could be to build up a flexible, if rough and ready, flying organization that was in effect the air transport wing of the Roy Farrell Export-Import Company. If Roy was the ‘Pappy’ (his universal nickname), Syd became the show’s stern and exacting Nanny. All those still alive who flew with him talk with reverence of Syd’s flying ability. Neville Hemsworth, whose good opinion is not thoughtlessly bestowed, speaks for many others: ‘Syd was a very smooth pilot. I mean, you get “flyers” and you get “drivers”. Syd was a “flyer”.’ Roy Farrell says simply, ‘Syd was as good a pilot as I ever rode with.’
    Because Roy himself was less interested in flying than in the buying and selling – in fact he soon stopped flying altogether – the two men complemented each other as perfectly as a good tennis doubles pair, and thus the pattern of the future began to assert itself. The new ‘order of battle’ was: first Bob Russell, then Eric Kirkby (a most competent ex-RAAF equipment officer) in the Sydney office; Farrell and ‘Nash’ in Manila; ‘Ged’ Brown in Shanghai; and Neil Buchanan in Hong Kong. Syd, the air ‘supremo’, flitted purposefully about, gnawed by visions of more and betterplanes and more pilots to fly them. Soon, because Hong Kong was at the geographical centre of things, he acquired an office of his own there – a room rented from P. J. Lobo & Co. at 4 Chater Road.
    Business continued brisk but in a characteristically hit-and-miss fashion. As far as outside appearances went, Buchanan’s office writing paper was pretty smart, carrying not only the Farrell company’s address (‘Prince’s Building, Ice House Street, Hong Kong’ and its cable address, ‘Bronco’) but the company logo that Betsy and the other planes already wore – the debonair kangaroo, the smiling dragon and the three flags. Beneath the logo the company proclaimed itself ‘The first international Airmerchandising service in the world’, and its prospectus that the interesting range of Australian products it ‘airmerchandised’ ran from men’s worsteds and Scamp swimsuits, to plastic belts and picture frames. Nor did things stop there. Presently a most unusual advertisement appeared in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post .
    OYSTERS !
SYDNEY  ROCK  OYSTERS
BY  AIR
     
From Australia,
in 32 Hours
     
These very fine oysters,
well known in Hong Kong as a great delicacy,
have been brought, alive in the shell, to Hong Kong
from the Sydney Oyster Beds
in the same time as they reach the Sydney householder.
     
Yet another service from the
     
ROY FARRELL EXPORT - IMPORT CO ., LTD .
     
     
    Farrell’s Sydney office still treasures a cable that Kirkby and Bob Russell received from Hong Kong: ‘Strictly confidential Korea shipment netted over £ 60,000 sterling.’ Kirkby still feels proud of it – for good reason. For those days it was a very big sum which puts Farrell’s success into perspective, just as the ‘Oysters by Air’ idea demonstrates his flair for salesmanship. As for his partners, what they lacked in business experience they made up for with a simple exuberance that can be seen in the boisterous letters (often in longhand since they decided they should save money on secretaries) that flew back and forth between them. ‘Have lined up a terrific cargo,’ Buchanan wrote to Russell from Shanghai while on a visit to GedBrown. ‘Some costume jewellery in the form of real silver bracelets, some leather fancy goods … brocade Mandarin jackets.’ Chinese Mandarin jackets for Sydney’s élite – Why not? In another letter to Russell, Buchanan talked excitedly of the big money in dried fruit and radiator wire (whatever that is), signing off breezily, ‘Keep your legs together, Yours sincerely, Neil B.’ Another time, Russell seemed quite carried away by the thought of a consignment of blankets and ‘700 gross human hairnets at £ 2,000