REVIEW
15
the popular imagination of footsore and tattered fugitives fleeing before advancing armies; as early as 1947 Chinese industrialists and capitalists, particularly from Shanghai, had started to move themselves and their money into Hong Kong. With the money came skilled work people, and so began a period of rapid industralization during which the newcomers established factories and set about renewing in Hong Kong their commercial ties. Investment in private building during 1950 reached the record figure of over $114,000,000.
Scarcely had the Central People's Government of China assumed control when the Korean War broke out in June 1950 and further confused the Hong Kong scene. One im- mediate effect of the Korean War was a speculative trade boom which absorbed a large portion of the capital which would otherwise have gone to industrial development; there was also, for a time, an outward flow of 'panic' capital. All this led to a decline in building activity. China's entry into the
war, followed by the introduction in 1951 of an embargo on trade with China in accordance with a resolution of the United Nations, caused a temporary depression; one effect of this was to cause a falling off in private building for about three years. Meanwhile the refugees showed no signs what- soever of leaving.
Never had Hong Kong's scanty land resources been more seriously strained than at this period. The Colony's land hunger, always acute, was now approaching famine propor- tions. If the pressing requirements of both industry and housing were to be met, more land would have to be found and existing land developed to the maximum. Land prices, already high, began to rise still further. All the indications were that land and property investment were about to become Hong Kong's 'Klondyke'.
Introducing the Colony's Budget debate in Legislative Council in March 1951, the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Alexander Grantham, reviewed recent events in a vein of
URBAN COUNCIL PUBLIC LIBRARIES