HISTORY
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put to good use in plans for the further expansion and modern- ization of the Police Force and the other agencies concerned with the preservation of law and order.
An increased, and ever increasing, tempo is apparent in every aspect of Hong Kong's daily life, but it is the growth of local industry itself, set against a background of the disruption of the Colony's normal trade pattern by forces beyond its control, which has been the most significant feature, after population growth, in the Colony's history in the post-war years.
As a result of the outbreak of war in Korea in June 1950, controls were progressively introduced over the export of strategic materials, beginning with petroleum and its derivatives in July of that year. As far as North Korea itself was concerned, a com- plete embargo on trade of any kind with that country was in- troduced on 8th July. In December the United States Government placed an embargo on goods destined for Hong Kong. This seriously affected supplies of raw materials essential for much of local industry, and led, for a time, to a serious disruption of the_Colony's manufactures, with the threat of widespread un- employment. Fortunately, this embargo was modified by the in- troduction of a system of controls, which ensured supplies of these materials for legitimate use in the Colony.
In June 1951, as a result of the United Nations Resolution of 18th May 1951, a complete embargo on the export of strategic materials to China was imposed by the Hong Kong Government. This was a crippling blow to local commerce and the volume of trade in that year fell by over one million tons compared with the figure for the preceding year. During 1952 the United States Government introduced controls over imports of Chinese-type merchandise from Hong Kong, and even now commodities of this kind are admitted into the United States only under strict procedures designed to ensure that they are of non-Communist origin. The entrepôt trade with China, once the Colony's mainstay, has been reduced to a trickle. Recent reductions in the scope of strategic controls have done little to improve the situation, which is caused principally by China's own economic and commercial policies. Exports to China have now fallen to 4% of total exports. The Colony has been saved from economic disaster in recent years only by its enterprise in the industrial field.