Alex Murray,Good Friend of Haikou People

Sir Murray is back again to Haikou.

Sir Alex Murray is former provost of the city of Perth, Scotland of Great Britain, the friendship city of Haikou, Hainan Province of China. He is a honorary citizen of Haikou and old friend of the people there. Speaking of Murray, I must start from 1989. At that time, as the provost of Perth, Murray, despite all different opinions, advocated to develop friendly relations with Haikou, and invited Haikou to send a troupe to take part in the performance of the musical Peace Child, organized by Perth. Leading 6 middle school students to attend the event, I felt honoured to become one of the first friendship envoys between Haikou and Perth, and thus, got to know the provost. Since then, the relationship between the two cities developed rapidly and became friendship cities in 1992. Perth is the first European city that has established friendly relations with Haikou since 1989, and Murray has made great contributions to the contact between the two cities.

As the cities’ exchanges became more frequent, Murray recognized Haikou as a vigourous and developing city and its people, friendly and hospitable. Thus, the friendly feelings he cherished towards the city were deepening day by day. He has visited Haikou many times, with his delegation or just by himself. He is particularly interested in investing in livestock. He went to Baisha County and a number of other counties and cities to make investigation of the farms. He traveled through desolate and uninhabited valleys, steep hills and muddy paths. Yet, due to various reasons, his plan of investing in Hainan Province never realized, which might be his greatest regret.

Murray is 76 years old now, still strong and straight. The Scottish kilt and jacket suit him well and add to his personal charm. The sgian dubhs (now served as a decoration of the traditional Scottish dress) in the woolen sporran shows his bravery and intrepidity.

Murray’s parents died when he was little and he was brought up by his great-grandfather. His life is legendary filled with adventures, struggles, courageous and resolute deeds, wisdom and benevolence. Because of his excellent performance in political, economic and social activities, Murray was elected one of the “Ten living legends” of Scotland in 2000, and was given the Medal of Honour by the U.S. Congress in 2001, the Order of the British Empire by the Queen of Great Britain in 2002 and the Honorary Citizenship of Haikou by the city in 1993.

Murray loved his career deeply. At the age of 5, he helped a farm owner to look after the cattle and herds, and ever since his life is more or less related to farms, cows and sheep. Through scores of years’ hard work, today Murray owns the biggest private ranch in Scotland, covering an area of 60,000 mu, its pastoral products exported to many places of Europe, America and Australia. He is not only a great farm owner, but also a true farm-hand, who still works in the ranch everyday at the age of 76. In 2004, he even built a hydropower station in the farm, providing “green” power for thousands of local residents. On this visit, he brought with him papers about hydropower for he wanted to help Hainan province to set up hydropower facilities, as he knew that China was short of power. Murray is rich but he leads a simple life. There is not luxurious decorations or expensive furniture in his house. One learns from Murray the virtues of Scottish people―enterprising, hardworking and thrifty.

Murray is bold and uninhibited, warmhearted, hospitable and kind, but not to the bad persons. During my visit to Perth, Murray sponsored an evening entertainment for my delegation. Dressed in their splendid national attires, Murray and his friends welcomed us at the door of the restaurant playing the bagpipes. The unique and sonorous sound of the bagpipes, the beautiful melody together with the elegant and graceful kilts made a wonderful and harmonious “scene”. We all felt warm and at home. “Here we are in Scotland, what a beautiful and magic land!” We may say if one has not seen Scottish man wearing kilt and playing bagpipes, he has not been to Scotland. Thanks to Murray, we have. When we went to visit his farm, Murray was so excited that he busied about like a young boy and he drove his jeep to bring us to the farm up on a hill. Driving on the narrow and bumpy hill road seemed to be as easy as a snap to Murray, but it was “bold”, to put it in one word. We were actually a little trembling with fear at the moment, yet afterwards to think of it again, it proved the saying: “Boldness of execution stems from superb skill”. On the top of the hill, we were deeply attracted by the magnificent scenery of the farm, with cattle and herds here or there, dense forest, blooming hyacinth and chanting streams, which reminded me of a well-known line of a Chinese pastoral poem: “grass blades bend in wind revealing cows and sheep”, though what we saw here is an English version. We also gained some knowledge about Murray’s rough collies’ ability. Hearing his different whistles, three rough collies that had been trained for years sped about like lightning and shooting-stars driving hundreds of sheep, obedient and modest, from one place to another in a few seconds. The collies are Murray’s good assistants and the security guards of the farm. Once, Murray caught sight of some hooligans knocking down one of his sheep and were about to take it away. He whistled to the collies who jumped into his jeep immediately. He caught up with the hooligans and demanded them to hand back the sheep. “Ask the steel stick and daggers for consent,” said the men. At once Murray opened the door of his car, saying, “You ask my collies for consent first.” So frightened by the flaming eyes and menacing paws of the three collies, the hooligans fled away like rats. If they had been slow, at Murray’s order, they would have been torn into pieces. Murray told us that, in the later period of WWII, he was selected as a member of the Teenagers Suicide Squad of the Reserve Force by the country, and the 15-year old boy was ready to sacrifice his life for his motherland. Wartime drilling programmes were severe without much protection, such as rock climbing, fist-fighting, shooting confrontation and use of dynamite, during which many of his companions were wounded, handicapped, even killed. For example, in shooting confrontation, each person should make a number of shots, in some of which true bullets were used. If got caught one would definitely be wounded or killed. That’s why Murray who had gone through the tests of blood and fire were not afraid of the few hooligans.

In 1991, the Soviet Union sent a troupe to take part in the performance of the musical Peace Child. Since the economy of Soviet Union was in an extremely bad shape, Murray himself initiated a donation, and within a few days, collected enough money for providing daily necessities to the Russian teenagers during their stay in Perth. When he was visiting the farms in Hainan, he often gave 50 or 100 US dollars to kids and old people. He was a kind-hearted man. Yet he knew quite well that “teaching how to fish is better than giving fish”, which might be the motivation of his plan to make investment in the province.

Murray cherishes friendship seriously. This time, he came to Haikou simply to pay visits to his old friends there. Although we were really busy with work, we could not afford to neglect an affectionate old man like him. My friends, my colleagues and I found time to accompany him to many places and entertained him. On the eve of his departure, we held a mini party for farewell. Everybody danced and sang songs as much as he liked. Murray started the cheerful Scottish highland dance with special steps and turning in his kilt. Was that a man of 76? Murray was so smart that he sensed we all wanted to watch his special performance which delighted us greatly. While we were singing the Australian folk song The Shearing of the Rams, we put out our fingers to imitate scissors and pretended to cut his hair and beard as if he had turned into a mild sheep in front of us. Besides being a provost, a senior and a powerful personage, he was our friend. That was the happiest moment for us. In the end, hand in hand, we sang Auld Lang Syne together which expressed well our heartfelt friendship and deep regret to say farewell. How time flew! Murray also became sentimental. Because of his health conditions he was not sure if he could make another visit. I felt a deep regret in my heart for I couldn’t find more time to be with Murray, which might be the greatest regret of my life. Dear Alex, we wish you good health and happiness, and forever Haikou welcomes you.