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REVIEW OF 1950.
For four months during the year the Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham, K.C.M.G., was absent from the Colony on leave. During this time the Colonial Secretary, Mr. J. F. Nicoll, C.M.G., was Officer Administering the Government. The Governor departed on 13th June and returned on 23rd October.
The Rt. Hon. E. J. St. L. Strachey, M.P., Secretary of State for War, visited Hong Kong early in June, and in October the Colony received visits from Mr. W. J. Edwards, M.P., Civil Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. M. Crawley, M.B.E., M.P., Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Air, and Sir Esler Dening, K.C.M.G., O.B.E. Other distinguished visitors during the year included H.E. the Governor of Macao, Commander Albano de Oliveira, Sir Arthur Rucker, K.C.M.G., head of the International Refugee Organization, Sir Hilton Poynton, K.C.M.G., Deputy Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, and several Ambassadors from Commonwealth and foreign States proceeding to or from Peking.
Unofficial visitors included the Countess Mountbatten, Mr. Harold Stassen, Senator Pepper, Mr. John Gunther and an unusually large number of leading British and American journalists on their way to and from Korea.
Relations with China
On the 6th February 1950 His Majesty's Government accorded de jure recognition to the Central People's Government of China which had been formally established in Peking on 1st October 1949. Although H.M. Charge d'Affaires arrived in Peking on 13th February 1950, no further progress has been made towards the establishment of normal diplomatic relations and in these circumstances it has of course been impossible for any official relations to be developed between the Government of Hong Kong and the Chinese authorities in Kwangtung. Even on the Sino-British border there has been practically no contact between the British and Chinese authorities. A number of minor frontier incidents occurred during the year, but fortunately none of these were of a nature to give rise to serious international complications.
The situation as regards shipping using the normal sea approaches to Hong Kong has however caused serious concern. In the early summer Chinese garrisons were established on the islands to the south and south-west of the Colony and shipping passing in the vicinity of these islands whilst using the normal southern and south-western approaches to Hong Kong was fired on without
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