“ In addition to the various public figures who have visited Hong Kong, there has been an increasing flow of visitors to the Colony on holidays, business and shopping. A survey carried out during the year to assess the magnitude of the tourist traffic suggests that the business value of tourism to the Colony at the present time is not less than $145 million per year and that, given the right encouragement, tourism could become one of the Colony's leading industries. Action is being taken to promote overseas publicity for Hong Kong. ”

“ In Hong Kong the health of a traditionally prolific population is protected by a technically proficient medical organization with the result that many children are born but few people die. If the present rate of increase continues it is likely that the population of Hong Kong will exceed 31⁄2 millions by 1964. The figure gives no cause for alarm, but it has given rise to some concern in the Education Department which is faced with the problem of providing means of education for the children of this multitude. ”

“ If development is reckoned in terms of the elimination of squalor and misery and insecurity, and the provision of the antithesis of these things for people who suffer greviously from them, then the year of the Horse has been a year of positive and promising development in Hong Kong. ”

“ In spite of an estimated 10 per cent drop in export prices the total value of exports of Hong Kong manufactures rose by 7 per cent. This compares favourably with the United Kingdom where the increase was 41⁄2% and with the whole world where the average increase was 6%. The most outstanding increase was in Japan with 17 per cent, and Japan is the Colony's keenest competitor in overseas markets. ”

“ The main gains in Hong Kong exports last year were cotton piece goods ($20 million) , enamel ware ($16 million) , electric torches ($8 million) , shirts ($8 million) and footwear ($7 million) . To overcome import restrictions in certain countries in South East Asia, some Hong Kong manufacturers are establishing factories in these countries. There are already seven factories in Indonesia financed from Hong Kong and ten more are under construction. Sixteen factories have been built in Thailand, five in Singapore and two in Japan. ”

“ Although the rehabilitation of a few cured lepers seems a small matter compared with the immense problem of resettling the squatter population, it may in the long run be more difficult to solve, for the main obstacle to its solution is not finance but the ignorance and prejudice of the community. ”

“ It was estimated that within and around the urban perimeter there was at best 20 acres of land available or on call at short notice, and perhaps a further 50 acres which could be freed if squatter shacks could first be removed. In the first place it seemed doubtful whether the whole area of available non-rural land could justifiably be reserved for a single section of the community, many of whom were recent immigrants and none of whom had any legal rights to land. There were many other citizens whose claims on developed land were undeniable. ”

“ There are still victims of recent fires living in pathetic cabins built against the walls of side streets and cul-de-sacs. There are still people living in deplorable squalor in between the fire breaks in the old settlements. ”

“ A daily domestic routine of filling baths and buckets with water has become a regular feature of the life of rich and poor alike, and it is borne with an equanimity which surprises visitors to the Colony. ”

“ The second important scheme is a large reclamation at Kun Tong on the north eastern side of the harbour which is to be used for industrial sites. In recent years Hong Kong has had to rely much less upon its old staple, the entrepôt trade, and much more upon its own resources of labour and initiative in order to make a living. This has been achieved by a very remarkable expansion of the manufacturing industry, and whereas at the beginning of 1948 there were 1,275 registered and recorded factories and workshops with 64,500 workers, at the end of 1954 both these figures had almost doubled. ”

“ But no one has been taken outside the physical range of employment, and nearly 70,000 people have been rehoused during the year in fire proof and sanitary dwellings far beyond what they could have envisaged when, a year or two ago, they racked the rubbish heaps for sheets of cardboard and tin with which to shape four walls and a roof. ”

“ Although the value of contracts signed by members of the mission was not high, the contract made with Chinese commercial interests has been welcomed by local businessmen and it is hoped that this may open the way for an increase of mutual trade in non-strategic commodities.
Hong Kong is the principal point of contact between Communist China and the democratic world. It also provides a vantage point from which the curious can look at the mainland of China. ”

“ The domestic virtues of the Western horse are not appreciated. Constable, the brewers and the governess in her car would all have been thought guilty of debasing a fiery and independent animal to the level of some ruminant buffalo or ox with powers of traction but few other virtues. ”

“ In the second place it was clearly impossible to effect resettlement even on a basis of reproviding the tiny holdings into which the squatters had compressed themselves.
It became clear, therefore, when the surveys were completed, that the possibility of resettlement lay in one direction and one direction only: intensive vertical development in place of intensive horizontal development. ”

“ A plan to which approval in principle has been given provides for the construction of about 30,000 domestic units for the benefit of 150,000 squatters who will be moved in order to free land for other grades of domestic development, or who are homeless as a result of this year's fires. ”

“ Fire breaks were driven through the larger settlements and those few who were displaced were rehoused temporarily elsewhere. Before the fire breaks were made, over 50,000 people lost their homes in one fire and over 30,000 in another. ”