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organized in Singapore to coincide with the first E.C.A.F.E. Conference on Trade Promotion, which was held in that city during November, and the success of this exhibition was followed up by delegations of Hong Kong Chinese traders to Indonesia and Thailand. The usual Annual Exhibition of Hong Kong Products, held in Hong Kong during December, coincided with a visit to the Colony by the Rt. Hon. Oliver Lyttelton, D.S.O., M.C., M.P., Secretary of State for the Colonies, who, in opening the Exhibition, announced that His Majesty's Government were resolved to maintain their position in Hong Kong, and would “discharge to the utmost of their ability their responsibilities towards the Colony as regards both the defence and the welfare of its population".
Public Works: an important year of development and planning
The year has been remarkable for the number of major public works on which Government has embarked. These include a new reservoir at Tai Lam Chung in the New Territories, new central offices of Government, and two important new urban reclamations, in the Central District and at Causeway Bay. In addition, a scheme to build a new City Hall has been approved in principle. The total cost of these projects is estimated at £51 million, and they will not be completed until the end of 1956.
The City Hall project may be said to have been initiated in May 1950 when the Sino-British Club, the Colony's principal cultural society, appointed a sub-committee to consider the matter and formulate the public's
requirements. The interest aroused was so considerable that it soon led to the formation of a large City Hall Committee under the chairmanship of the Rev. Thomas F. Ryan, s.J., its members repre- senting no fewer than 55 different organizations and societies. This Committee received the encouragement of Government and in June 1951 put forward proposals that the new City Hall should contain a meeting hall for 2,500 persons, a banqueting hall, a small theatre, a public library, a museum, two or three smaller halls and several committee rooms.
The City Hall Committee ran into immediate difficulties over the question of finding a suitable site. It was agreed that a City Hall should properly be situated in the central district of Victoria, but here there is no area available for building, and expansion of the city eastwards, which would have been desirable for this purpose, is barred by the Royal Naval Dockyard, Murray Barracks and Victoria Barracks, an area extending almost a mile along the waterfront and about 2 mile inland. The solution of the site problem was found in the Govern- ment's plans to undertake a further reclamation in the central district between the Dockyard and the passenger ferry. Government has
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