Balmy
NOW on offer: a unique opportunity to go into business with some of the most in- famous characters in Singapore. The words are those of the Singapore government, whose tourist agency wants tenders for developing Haw Par Villa, or the Tiger Balm Gardens. Have they asked Jim Sla- ter? Tiger Balm is the Chinese elixir credited with virtually magical properties, Haw Par is the company which makes it, and the profits from Tiger Balm paid for the Gardens — fitted out with statues of Chinese mythical heroes, gods and demi- gods, regardless of cost or, as some would say, taste. Mr Slater added Haw Par to his empire at the time when his name was the Tiger Balm of the market. It proved his bane. The publicised commotions at Haw Par — share-dealing profits being channel- led away into Australia, and into a com- pany established for certain directors' be- nefit — did more than anything to bring Slater Walker down. The Singapore gov- ernment sought and failed to get Mr Slater extradited from Britain and secured the extradition of his co-director Richard Tarl- ing. Mr Tarling was convicted of failing to provide Haw Par shareholders with true and fair accounts, and was sent to Changi jail, behaving with dignity throughout. Having survived all this, the Gardens are now to be turned into a Chinese Mytholo- gical Theme Park, with the relevant statues preserved. And the infamous characters? These, it seems, are the demigods.
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