78
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
of goods imported or exported. Figures for trade statistics are collected from the declarations which importers and exporters are required by law to file with the Statistical Office.
During the year the Country and Commodity Classification Lists were extensively revised and new declaration forms were designed for use in conjunction with Hollerith punched card equipment which was installed in December. These changes will enable the Department, from January 1959, to publish separate statistics of trade with an increased number of territories and to effect a complete separation of domestic exports from re-exports.
TRADE CONTROL
Import controls over items no longer of strategic significance were relaxed in August. Quantitative and end-use controls are maintained now only in respect of highly strategic commodities.
Export controls were also relaxed in August to permit a number of previously embargoed items no longer of strategic value to be exported to China and North Vietnam.
THE PREVENTIVE SERVICE
The enforcement of trade controls, and the inspection of factories and goods in connexion with the export of Hong Kong products under certificates of origin and Imperial Preference certificates are among the duties of the Preventive Service. This is the uniformed and disciplined enforcement branch of the Commerce and Industry Department. Its tasks are many and varied, but in the main the Service is concerned with the protection of revenue accruing from goods which are dutiable. Other responsibilities include the prevention, in co-operation with the Police Force, of illicit traffic in narcotics. The presence of over 20,000 small craft in the waters of the Colony and the long rugged coastline impose their own peculiar problems and difficulties, in addition to those normally encountered in a major seaport.
At the beginning of the financial year 1958-9 a re-organization of the Service was introduced in order to bring salary scales and qualifications for appointment to ranks below Revenue Inspector into line with those of the Police Force. The service, as re- organized, has a total establishment of 335 consisting of the Chief