My grandfather ran the Shanghai operation for Sassoon from 1941 to 1943 after the British management were sent to POW camps. My grandfather had British citizenship, but was ethnically Spanish so he was left alone by the occupying Japanese forces. My grandfather held Sir Victor in high esteem and endured hard times in Shanghai running Sassoon business affairs until the situation became untenable in 1943.

My grandfather then left for the Portuguese colony of Macau in 1943 where he remained until the liberation of Hong Kong where he did some tidying up work for the Sassoons after the war.

The story also mentions Lord Kadoorie who I knew well as a child in Hong Kong. The Kadoories are wonderful philanthropists and I wish they had had an interest in cryptozoology as they would have been excellent supporters. Sir Michael Kadoorie is now the fourth richest man in Hong Kong with a fortune of $5.3 billion dollars. I am sure if we had the continuing support of people like Slick and Kadoorie, some cryptids would have been identified by now.