:
1
3
}
Until 1914 there were virtually no restrictions on the immigration of Chinese or other aliens into Britain. However, the numbers taking advantage of this were very small. The census of 1901, for instance, recorded only about 400 Chinese residents in Britain of whom some 60% were seamen and a number in the laundry business. From this time onwards, Chinatowns began to form in the East End of London, in Liverpool and other large ports which catered for the increasing number of Chinese seamen employed by British and other shipping lines. The laundry business grew fast in those days much as the restaurant business in more recent years. In 1911, 350 laundrymen were recorded out of a total Chinese population of some 1,200 men and less than 100. women. In 1921, laundrymen had reached a total of 547 out of a population of 2,400 and, for the first time, statistics showed a number of people employed in the restaurant business. These restaurants however were catering almost entirely to Chinese residents and did not appear to have been used by the local population at all. The 1951 census recorded almost 2,000 Chinese born in China and 3,000 born in Hong Kong. Most of this population was still concentrated in the main ports. The main change in occupation was the dramatic decrease in the number of laundrymen to a total of 20 as a result of the introduction of automatic machinery and the opening of launderettes.
The big growth in the Hong Kong Chinese population in Britain occurred during the 1950's and early 1960's when the success of the few Chinese restaurants established in the West End of London attracted other people into the business and workers started to be recruited from the N.T. The pace of development of Chinese restaurants was very rapid in those years and as the larger towns and cities became saturated, restaurants started to open up in the smaller towns all over the country.
This growth was temporarily halted in 1962 when the first restrictions were imposed on the immigration of Commonwealth citizens. However, employers found a way around the labour shortage by turning increasingly to employing non-Hong Kong born labour (which was not restricted in overall numbers) and the dependents of Hong Kong born workers already resident in Britain.
/-4-