The Quah Kongsi in 1949

It is a pity that my Penang Swee Cheok Tong Seh Quah Kongsi had lost most of our pre-war records, that is, prior to the bleak period of the Japanese Occupation from December 1941 till September 1945, but recently I found the earliest surviving official list of elected Trustees and Committee Members that dated back to 1949. The most prominent name among the office bearers was Quah Beng Kee, the man that introduced the first private ferry service that plied between the island and the mainland. Beng Kee cast a long shadow over the Quah Kongsi. It is of interest to note that as long ago as 1928, he was already the President and it was a post that he held until his death in 1952. 

Also of interest are the displays of the two flags. The one on the left - with the deep blue sky and a white sun - was the flag of the Koumintang party. Meanwhile, the other was the flag of the Republic of China, now Taiwan. The flag is no longer used in mainland China. Since the Kongsi's origins were in the Hokkien province of China, the two flags were dropped from all subsequent documents soon after the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.