Habade

Submitted by brian edgar on Tue, 07/03/2012 - 23:22

Barbara Anslow's diary entry today records the arrival of some of the '$75 dollar parcels' in Stanley.

These were packages of food and useful items bought for each internee with money provided by the Japanese (or according to some accounts the Red Cross) as announced in April. In May Chester Bennett was allowed out of Camp to make the purchases and the first parcels seem to have arrived at the start of June.

I'm looking at a copy of an invoice for what must have been one of the last ones (dated August 7, 1942). It was sent out by HABADE in the French Bank Building. The items include soap, shoes and needles and thread as well as cheese, chocolates and honey, so it was presumably a department store, and the location, name and continued operation suggest it might well have been French owned.

Any information on HABADE would be welcomed.

No mentions of them in Google Books or the online newspapers.

There are a couple of mentions in HKGRO, one in the 1934 jurors list, and a note that they were struck off the register (of listed companies I guess) in 1939.

Regards, David