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The structure of the Civil Affairs Unit which during the Military Administration discharged the routine functions of the Civil Government was based partly on the normal govern- mental system and partly on the pattern evolved for the civil administration of territories which had been occupied or liberated during the earlier stages of the war. The senior posts were held by British Army officers, many of whom were Colonial Service officials, together with a few Royal Air Force officers and civilians; the junior appointments were held partly by British Service personnel (for example there was a com- plete Royal Army Service Corps Transport Company which was part of the Civil Affairs Unit) and partly by locally recruited candidates including many permanent Government servants of local domicile who had either contrived to remain in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation or who had returned from China when the war was over. The Civil Affairs Unit was divided into branches which corresponded roughly to the departments of Civil Government, and as the Military Administration drew to a close the administrative machine was gradually modified to conform as far as possible with the pre-war system. When Civil Government was resumed on 1st May, 1946, all permanent officials were granted local demobilization and normal administrative organisation was set up with the addition of certain temporary departments.
The system is briefly as follows:
Under the general direction of the Colonial Secretariat, the staff of which has been considerably increased to deal with the volume of work in the immediate post-war period, the administrative functions of Government are discharged by some thirty departments, all the officers of which are members of the Civil Service. There are five legal sub-departments, excluding the judiciary. Since 1938 the Financial Secretary has assumed a purely administrative function in the Secre- tariat and under his direction the Treasury is responsible for the public accounts, the Assessor's Office deals with the assessment and collection of rates and the Department of Inland Revenue is concerned with the collection of miscellane- ous indirect taxation. The Superintendent of Imports and Exports is charged with the collection of import and excise duties and with the direction of preventive work.
The Secretary for Chinese Affairs is a senior administra- tive officer and has a wide and general responsibility in all matters affecting the Chinese community. During the year under review the Labour Office which had previously been a part of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, became for the first time a separate department. The Medical Depart- ment and the Sanitary Department deal with public health and the Public Works Department is concerned with roads, buildings, waterworks, piers and similar matters.