HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1954
agitation and recrimination was carried on by the Union, but it now seems to have spent its force without getting the expected degree of support from the workers, and the only inconvenience caused to the public was two short token strikes on the tramways and one 15 minute sympathy strike by motor bus drivers.
In the sphere of politics the unsettled situation in the Far East still gave cause for anxiety at times, but public confidence in Hong Kong was maintained. It should be stated, however, that Hong Kong's teeming population, busy earning its daily bread, is perhaps less worried by the delicacy of its position in the Far East than outside observers. Despite the failure to reach a political settlement in Korea, the continued détente there and the ceasefire in Indo-China, arranged at the Geneva Conference, brought a welcome respite from active hostilities in East and South-east Asia and hopes that further conflict might be avoided. Business- men, however, remained cautious in their estimates of any relaxation of the restrictions still impeding the Colony's trade.
The agreement between Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom and the Central People's Government of China to the appointment of a Chargé d'Affaires with diplomatic status in London eased rela- tions with that country to some extent, although so far as Hong Kong is concerned, the Chinese Government remained aloof. There were a number of frontier incidents, of which the most serious was the detention by the Chinese authorities in June of the yacht "Elinor" and its crew of nine Royal Naval Officers and ratings while on a holiday cruise, and the disappearance into Chinese waters of a Police patrol launch in July. After
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