“ It has been said of these people that nothing but land for them to farm would make them happy and contented members of society. There was no land, and if they were to remain and become good citizens they had to be weaned away from their discontent and transformed by some social alchemy from the mentality of the farmer to that of the industrial worker. ”

“ Most of the refugees were farmers, a true cross-section of the population of China which is overwhelmingly agricultural. But where was the farming land? 50 square miles was under cultivation, and that 50 square miles was already supporting a population of nearly 300,000, three times as many as when the rural areas adjoining the city first came under British rule in 1898. Almost all of the remaining country, which, apart from the cities of Hong Kong and Kowloon, measures another 328 square miles, is made up of steep and rocky hillside on which no farmer has ever found a living. ”

“ The old immigration restrictions were not enforced as far as Chinese travellers from the mainland were concerned, and many thousands of people, impelled by the chaotic conditions in China at the time, flooded into Hong Kong seeking, in the main, better opportunities and economic security. Hong Kong began to accept the implications of a population some 25% greater than what might be regarded as its normal capacity. ”

“ Modern governments can seldom answer questions with a 'yes' or a 'no.' There are contingencies, hypotheses, counsels of caution and considerations of expediency. One never, at the end of a year, simply reports progress, as if direction were maintained like the path of an aircraft. ”

“ Socially the connexions between Hong Kong and China are very close in normal circumstances. There is no marked geographical feature to form a natural frontier, and people on either side of the political border come from the same stock and lead the same sort of lives. Many long residents of Hong Kong still had their family homes in the villages of Kwangtung and Kwangsi and these they visited frequently and sometimes for extended periods. Even where personal ties had been lost, these visits were enjoined by Chinese custom. ”

“ The seven months showed an adverse balance of at least 56,000 permanent immigrants — a rate of immigration well in excess of the Colony's high natural increase. The quota system was, therefore, reimposed early in September 1956.
When one sees a child, or even a dog, run over by a motorcar one hurries to help and the emotions of horror and pity do not die easily. But when one reads of one million homeless exiles all human compassion baulks and the great sum of human tragedy becomes a matter of statistical examination. ”

“ This is an internationally accepted principle, and Hong Kong's own pre-war and more recent history has shown that it can and must be applied when the situation becomes threatening — or (the cynical reader may add) when the Government wakes up to its responsibilities to its established citizens. Why was the situation ever allowed to develop into the vast problem that now faces the Government? Was it assumed that up to one million immigrants could be assimilated to an acceptable degree and in reasonable time? ”

“ Judging from the criticisms one hears, there is an idea in some minds that the functions of the Government are exercised in a sort of sterile vacuum where theories can be tested and principles applied in isolation from those inconsequential occurrences over which even a Government has no control. ”

“ This met with some success, and, even where the Marxist doctrines had no appeal and the initial pogroms were roundly condemned, there were many overseas Chinese who saw in the solidarity, determination and incorruptibility of the new régime, spiritual qualities from which a new and better China might eventually emerge when the first excesses had run their course, and when the exotic doctrines had been tempered by the Chinese genius for compromise. Both communists and non-communists were well represented in the settled communities of Hong Kong. ”

“ The increase of population up to 1949 has been called 'economic' immigration. It sprang from mainly economic causes, and in the economic sphere at all events Hong Kong was able to absorb it. The expansion of trade alone provided a reasonable and improving standard of living for all. Then came the victory of the communist faction in China and, shortly afterwards, the Korean War. The first event was responsible for the influx of the political refugees ”

“ When the Japanese attack on Hong Kong came in 1941 the Colony was desperately (or so it seemed at the time) overcrowded, and this was one of the factors which impeded its effective defence. The Japanese inherited the same problem but resorted to more drastic measures. In 1942 and 1943 up to 1,000,000 people were expelled, many of them immigrants of a few years earlier, to find such livelihood as they could in the villages and fields of South China. ”

“ It is seldom indeed that a situation arises where principle can be applied with the knife-edge precision of that early Buddha who, tiring of the quarrels of earth's inhabitants, descended to a high mountain in Ceylon and called together all the men, birds, beasts and fish in order to resolve their differences. ”

“ Although she was faced with the problem of providing in some way or other for a new influx of 700,000 people, and although the introduction of economic controls was likely to have a serious indirect effect on non-strategic trade, Hong Kong took immediate steps, more far-reaching than those taken by any other territory, to give effect to the embargo on China and so cut off, at its own expense, a major part of its own livelihood. ”

“ The increase between 1945 and 1956 due to immigration was, therefore, somewhere about one million, and of this number Dr. Hambro, who conducted a survey on behalf of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1954, has estimated that about 700,000 were refugees. Hong Kong was already over-crowded in 1941 and to arrive at a 'normal' population in relation to the Colony's actual state of development it is necessary to look back rather further to, say, 1937 when the population was about 1,200,000. The annual rate of natural increase is at present about 75,000. ”

“ Around them they saw a flourishing community, well established and battening on the post-war boom. The majority were far enough removed from that community in the economic and social sense, but they were still further removed in their political views. The Communist Government of China was rapidly establishing itself and it lost no time in trying to win over the whole-hearted allegiance of overseas Chinese. ”

“ A time came when there was no longer any possibility of absorbing such large numbers into the organized life of the community and it was found necessary, after much heartsearching, to impose immigration restrictions on entry from China. ”

“ The immigrants were admitted on humanitarian grounds alone and the problems to which they would give rise if they did not return or emigrate elsewhere were deliberately accepted. The first influx fled from the shattered economy and threat of famine which followed the Pacific War. ”

“ It is the problem of a vast immigrant population; vast because for every resident of the Colony at the British reoccupation in 1945 there are now four residents.
A few figures will explain the position more precisely. The land area of the Colony of Hong Kong is 391 square miles. ”

“ They turned their hands to new trades with the resilience and resourcefulness of their race, and they caused little trouble so long as they were left undisturbed in their pathetic settlements, densely packed by both necessity and choice. ”

“ The reviews with which this report traditionally begins are no exception. Progress has always been there, but it is hedged about with a crop of problems which have confounded the purpose and confused the achievement. ”

“ Of this 12 square miles are developed for residential, commercial and industrial purposes, 50 square miles are cultivated, and the remainder is largely hillside or swamp which is unsuitable for agriculture and could not be developed for other purposes without disproportionately heavy expenditure on site-formation or services. ”