1
Review
FEW years in Hong Kong have been entirely unremarkable. There have been times when our circumstances were such that mere endurance provoked admiration and wonder. Since then happily the Colony has won respect for less exciting achievements, or has made ordinary achievements exciting by their scale. By any of these standards 1964 was a remarkable year. A series of typhoons provided more excitement than any one needed and many tragic deaths. At the same time they brought a welcome end to the long drought. In the sphere of government there has been a change of Governor and an enlargement of the Legislative Council. There has been detailed examination of many of our basic social policies and bold new courses have been set, for example, in housing. Inevitably we remain preoccupied with our fundamental problems of providing enough homes and jobs and hospital beds and school places for our people. But, grim as these problems are, their solution need not be stark or austere and in Hong Kong the most massive problems have led us into our most exciting ventures. This is cer- tainly true in the physical sense where public projects of all kinds have set high standards of imaginative, yet practical design. It is equally true of the efforts to strengthen and expand the economic structure on which all this progress depends. They have led us this year into such relatively sophisticated exercises as legislating for firmer con- trol of banks and banking business and planning for a Productivity Council to maintain our competitive position in the international markets on which we depend. This latter development, which will involve a Productivity Centre from which our industries may draw advice, goes hand in hand with prospects of accelerated technical training at all levels; more opportunities for technological and technical training in government schools and institutions; and the offer of assistance to certain forms of craft training within industry. All this while Hong Kong has continued to grow; in population; in industrial enterprise; in new buildings; and even in actual size