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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
to assist the under-privileged of the Colony over the Chinese New Year.
The Kowloon riots in October placed a considerable strain on both services. The rapid distribution of information, particularly to areas under curfew, was of paramount impor- tance, and both services stayed on the air much longer than usual.
Most of the landmarks in the yearly life of the Colony are also broadcasting landmarks. There is space to mention but a few the Exhibition of Hong Kong Products, the Agricul- tural Show, the Cross-Harbour Race, the Air Display at Kai Tak, the Queen's Birthday Parade, and the Dragon Boat Races, all of which were given full broadcast coverage. Prominent men and women who visited the Colony and who broadcast included the Rt. Hon. Herbert Morrison, the Rt. Hon. Sir Hartley Shawcross, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, Irene Kohler, Gregor Piatigorsky, Louis Kentner, Annarosa Taddei, Maurice Clare, Chris Chataway, Professor Arnold Toynbee and Douglas Bader.
The B.B.C. continued to maintain a supply of first-class material on transcription. Transcriptions were also received and broadcast from the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Nederland, and United Nations Radio. KIRO, the Columbia Broad- casting System in Seattle, recorded an eye-witness account for Radio Hong Kong on the Colony's display at the 5th International Trade Fair at Seattle, and the Voice of America produced a recorded interview with Miss Irene Yuen, a well- known local pianist now studying in America. In addition to receiving transcriptions, Radio Hong Kong for the first time produced its own-a series of programmes originally broadcast by the Chinese service being sent to Radio Malaya and Radio Sarawak.
Radio licence figures again rose during the year and now stand at 58,737, an increase of 6,269 over the previous year.