REVIEW OF THE YEAR
of the new Secretariat and Government offices. The construction of this building is long overdue, for the existing accommodation is inadequate and Government departments are scattered inconveniently in rented accommodation throughout the city. It is estimated that the erection of the new buildings will take about three years, but the first section is expected to be ready for occupation at the end of 1953 or early in 1954.
The increasing size and speed of modern civil aircraft have rendered the airfield at Kai Tak unsuit- able, as it is today, for the site of an international trunk route airport. Following a mission of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, headed by Mr. Broadbent, to survey the possibilities of improving the airfield so as to bring it up to acceptable international standards for all modern types of aircraft, a British firm of consulting engineers, Messrs. Scott & Wilson of London, was engaged to advise on the method and cost of putting into effect the Broadbent proposals, which were, briefly, that Kai Tak should have two new runways one of which was to be laid down partly on land to be reclaimed from the sea in Kowloon Bay. The total cost is likely to be several million pounds sterling. The preliminary report of the consulting engineers, received in September, indicated that develop- ment on the lines of the Broadbent report was feasible; and a detailed survey, which will cost over half a million Hong Kong dollars, has now been put in hand. This survey covers a thorough scientific investigation into all the engineering problems involved, the plan- ning of the future layout of the airport, the design of a new terminal building to sketch plan stage, and an estimate of overall cost. It is hoped that the project
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