“Hong Kong Captured: Motor-Car Invasion by American Sailors”, ran a headline in the South China Morning Post on May 27, 1910.
“Hongkong was captured Wednesday by American ‘jack tars,’” the story that marked the Post’s first mention of the motor car continued. “In a big touring car they oper ated in the vicinity of the Hongkong Hotel and other equally well-known hostelries. The invaders were extremely dignified, and very clean in their white suits, but the ribald cries of the populace as echoes of the horn’s ‘honk, honk,’ somewhat marred the general effect.”