erroneously, that it was designed to rival the Canton Fair, which had been postponed for a month because of the unsettled conditions in that city and was then due to start on 15th November. They attempted a counter-display of goods from the Mainland, as much to improve the dwindling sales in their department stores as to draw attention away from Hong Kong Week. But they had little success in their campaign and, despite a noticeable increase in explosions during the period, the various events planned for the Week duly took place, with considerable success. The Silver Jubilee exhibition of the Chinese Manufacturers Association, which opened on 5th December, attracted no bombs and was also well attended.
150. From about the middle of December the number of true bombs noticeably dwindled and there were none at all after Christmas Day. The available evidence suggested that this violent phase had come to an end. Since it began, 8,352 suspected bombs had been reported and checked by explosive experts. 1,420 proved to be genuine: Police and Services bomb disposal teams dealt with 1,167 and there were 253 un- controlled explosions. These caused the death of 16 people; two police- men; an army sergeant investigating a suspected bomb at Lion Rock; an officer of the Fire Brigade who was killed while off duty; eight mem- bers of the public; and four who died from the premature explosion of bombs that they were carrying themselves. 340 people were injured by bombs, of whom 74 were policemen and 28 were members of the Armed Forces or other security units.
CHAPTER 11
THE WATER SHORTAGE
151. There are no sizeable rivers in Hong Kong and the Colony is mainly dependent for its water supply on rainwater collected in its reservoirs. At the beginning of 1967 the total combined storage capacity of these reservoirs was 16,800 million gallons. An additional project, involving the construction of a dam across an arm of the sea at Plover Cove in the New Territories, had progressed to the stage that the main dam was closed. By early summer most of the sea water had been pumped out and the reservoir was ready to receive fresh water from the summer rains. In 1960 an agreement was made with China for the supply of 5,000 million gallons of water a year to the Colony from the Shum Chun reservoir, which lies a few miles to the north of the border
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