American Legion
HOW AN IDEA BECAME REALITY
In
the beginning, during the latter part of 1944.George Ming Lee, a postal employee
and member of the American Legion post, met with George Mar Lee, also a postal
employee and member of another American Legion post, and with Frank Gee, who ran
the Chinatown Fair enterprise, to discuss the formation of a Chinese American
Legion post to serve the American veterans of Chinese descent. They liked the
idea, agreed to meet again and to bring their friends with them.
A
second caucus was held on a Sunday over a tea party at Wah Hong Restaurant,
Doyer Street, Chinatown. Besides the original three, Louie Gar-lap, Wai Tun-on,
Chin Tom-tung and Chu Fee also attended. The seven of them showed much interest
and enthusiasm. They scheduled another meeting the following week at the same
time and place.
Two
more veterans, Louie Hoy and Cheung Lu came to the third caucus. There were
still too few people to start an organization. They decided to meet the week
after, determined to bring in as many veterans as they possibly could. Five more
came to this meeting including Tom Tek-jun, Loo Shing, Lam Yu, Kao Lap and Harry
D. Kellog, who was the only non-Chinese among them, for a total of 14 people.
Now
they felt there were enough people to form a committee to start organizing an
American Legion post. George Mar Lee was elected as temporary chairman, George
Ming Lee as Vice-chairman, Wai Tun as treasurer, Chin Tom-tung and Louie Gai-lap
as secretaries; Chu Fee as adjutant. For the coordinator, who was to be
responsible for keeping everybody informed, Frank Gee was elected because he was
there operating the Chinatown Fair, which the group often used as an ideal
meeting place.
Frank
Gee not only provided his premises for the committee to meet, he also paid for
the costs of those tea parties held at the restaurant. His contribution to the
formation of the post was unsurpassed by any member. Later, at a fund-raising
meeting, all the original members donated a total of $120 for the general
operating fund.
The
provisional post now had two most important tasks. The first was a membership
drive. With the war’s coming to an end, many veterans had returned and resumed
their civilian life. When the word was spread, within a month’s time, post
membership increased rapidly to over one hundred strong, more than the required
number of members for application for an official American Legion post.
Consequently,
the post proceeded to undertake the second task: applying for a charter from the
National American Legion Headquarters. Honorable discharge certificates were
required for authenticity. Most of the members had emigrated from China. They
realized that the discharge papers were the most important documents they
possessed. They were afraid they might be mishandled or lost, and hesitated to
let the post temporarily borrow them.
Lau
Sing Kee, a prominent local business man and veteran of WW-I, served as Vice
commander at an American Legion Post. He had the respect of the community. He
came out to explain the procedures
Mr.
Lau and members of the post, Chu Fee, Tom Tek-jun and Harry Kellog, together
with the help from County Adjutant McGovern, worked throughout the night to
prepare the documents and application for the Charter. On June 23, 1945, the
National Executive Committee of the American Legion granted the post an official
Charter, two months from the beginning of their start-up campaign. Mr. Lau, upon
learning the news, hosted a party for all the members at Port Arthur Restaurant
to celebrate its success. Our post owes Mr. Lau Sing-kee a debt of gratitude.
Thus AMERICAN LEGION, LT. B.R KIMLAU CHINESE MEMORIAL POST 1291 was created.