PART I INTRODUCTION
3
general impression of the physical environment in the areas where the disturbances had taken place. We also visited the Police/Military operations room at the Kowloon Police Headquarters.
13. In order to assist our understanding of the events, we viewed news films taken during the disturbances and inspected the press reports and records of broadcasts made during this period. In addition we had access to relevant records of court proceedings in respect of persons sentenced for riot offences who gave evidence before us.
14. We have also had available to us an analysis of certain factors relating to more than 300 of the individuals convicted of offences connected with the riots, who had not given evidence. In addition, a more detailed survey was carried out by social workers at our request of 24 younger offenders in a remand centre. The results of these two surveys are mentioned in Part V of this report.
15. A number of those who had come forward with statements covering sociological matters relevant to our Inquiry also gave us valuable oral testimony within this field.
16. 64 witnesses were examined, all in public. In addition, a substantial amount of written material, mainly on sociological matters, was made available to us, and we have, of course, had access to a number of publications dealing with fiscal and economic problems relevant to our Inquiry.
17. The last witness was heard on 17th August and thereafter, at the request of counsel, we gave a short adjournment to enable them to prepare their final submissions which were completed on 2nd September.
CHAPTER 3. THE BACKGROUND TO OUR INQUIRY
18. Although the basic facts of Hong Kong's political, economic and social circumstances are fairly widely known, we feel that it is essential to an under- standing of the narrative, commentary and conclusions in subsequent chapters of this report that we include here a few notes on some of the salient features of the Colony.
19. The People. From a population which had been reduced during the Japanese occupation to about 600,000 in August 1945, there was a rapid increase in the months following the liberation to a figure of approximately 1,800,000 at the end of 1947. Thereafter, the numbers rose dramatically with successive influxes of refugees from Kwangtung province, from Shanghai and from many other parts of China and had reached a total of 3,133,131 at the time of the census in March 1961. Further increases, both natural and in the form of immigrants from China, raised the total to nearly 33 million persons in April 1966.