Boston building, part 3

WHEN I was showing my Boston building stories (click here for Part 1 and Part 2) to some of my mates, one of them commented that he didn't remember ever walking along the pavement in front of the building. "Maybe we didn't have any need to visit any of the shops there, or maybe we associated the Boston Bar with drunk angmor servicemen and avoided the area," he told me.

Well, maybe that was true because to me too, the Boston Bar was notorious as a rowdy place. My parents never had a good word to share about the Boston Café or the Bar, and being a very obedient goody two shoes boy, I never ventured into these two places. But from in my late teens, I certainly did walk by the front of the four shops many times out of sheer necessity...and nothing else! 

So what sort of activities went on beside the rowdiness and boisterousness? A bit of searching on the Internet revealed to me that it was quite a popular place back then. Tea parties to celebrate occasions. They were perhaps the closest deal to a Boston tea party that many people could claim to have attended. Wedding receptions. But definitely meetings. Committee meetings, general meetings. Oh yes, even chess tournaments. In 1948, the Penang Chess Club organised a two-day Penang Chess Congress there and in 1949, the Boston Café was the venue of the annual general meeting of the Malayan Chess Federation. Such an exciting and in-place. By the way, I heard they served very good ice cream sundaes too!

But the rowdiness and notoriety? Blame them on the foreign soldiers and servicemen, of course! To place events in their proper context, in April 1962 as Malaysia was battling Indonesian insurgents during the Confrontation crisis, Britain had deployed their First Green Jackets (43rd and 52nd) infantry regiment to bolster the country's defence. They were based in the former Minden Barracks in Glugor from where they were redeployed several times to North Borneo and Sarawak territories for operations against the Indonesian intruders. Away from the jungles of East Malaysia, the Green Jackets probably contributed a lot to the local Penang music scene. Their military band was reported to have given several public performances either at the Esplanade or the Botanical Garden. By the time the last of the regiment departed Penang in June 1967, they had been redesignated as the Second Battalion, Royal Green Jackets. 

At that time too, Penang was often a popular rest-and-recreation destination for visiting soldiers, especially US troops. The American War in Vietnam was raging. And so... British servicemen, Americans, Australians, Kiwis, you name them and they'll be here. And when they get drunk, things can really get interesting in the bars.

For example, there's this old newspaper story that I uncovered yesterday from the Straits Times, dated 29 December 1963. A bit hilarious now, if you ask me, but definitely not so about 60 years ago!

Three police radio cars last night rushed to the Boston Cafe in busy Penang Road and arrested two soldiers. Three others escaped.

Earlier, the soldiers from the Green jackets had gone to the cafe, an "out of bounds" area to servicemen.

After drinking in the bar, they became boisterous.

Grabbing chairs and other articles, the soldiers ran out to the road and began to hurl them at passing motorists and passers-by.

They threatened to assault anyone who attempted to stop them.

Someone telephoned for the police who arrived within minutes.

Seeing the police, the five men tried to escape. Two were detained. They were handed over to the Military Police this morning. 

This was only the tip of the ice-berg. The newspapers of the day often reported on errant servicemen being brought to the Courts for unruly behaviour in unnamed bars and other establishments. There was even one report of two British servicemen arrested in a coffeeshop in Transfer Road while "in the act of negotiating for the sale of an air pistol" with a detective posing as a buyer. This happened on 14 January 1967. While waiting in ambush position, The Straits Times reported, the police saw the two men arrive with a brown paper packet. They sat at a table and negotiated with a detective. As the firearm was being handed over, the police moved in and arrested the duo.

There were other moments too, like this one, as reported by The Straits Times on 26 April 1960. One wonders why the fine was so low. I also wonder whether this ex-soldier is still alive in New Zealand. He would be having a good laugh over his antics:

A New Zealand soldier who climbed up a 50ft roof yesterday afternoon and had to be rescued by the fire brigade, was today fined $6 for behaving in a disorderly and abusive manner.

"I was not rescued. I came down on my own," Gunner Malcolm Phillip, 25, said when charged in the Second Magistrate's Court here.

Phillip, attached to the 2nd New Zealand Regiment at Taiping also denied he had abused police when they tried to stop him jumping down from the roof of the Boston Cafe in Penang Road, one of the city's businest thoroughfares.

Woman Inspector M Rukumani, who prosecuted, said a police patrol rushed to the scene at 2.45 yesterday afternoon and found Phillip attempting to jump from the cafe roof.

The fire brigade was summoned and Phillip was brought down.

When the rescue party approached him, Phillip abused them, the inspector said.