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Stadium and ten thousand strong at the nearby South China Athletic Stadium for big matches and football in Hong Kong has all the partisan fervour, and not a few of the troubles, of football anywhere. Hockey also is played with skill by people of all nationalities in Hong Kong, including women, and a Hong Kong hockey team won a trip to the Tokyo Olympics.
Hong Kong's participation in the Olympics, even if somewhat tentative, will undoubtedly have stimulated interest in competitive sport. The Colony was dramatically associated in a different way with the games when the Olympic Torch passed through on its way from Greece. The flame, due to stay one night, was delayed a further day by a typhoon and thousands turned out to line the streets for its arrival and to see the ceremonies in which it was received by the Governor at the City Hall.
The organization of Hong Kong's entry in the 1964 Games and all the other ceremonies connected with it was the work of an Urban Councillor, Mr A. de O. Sales, who is also Chairman of the Olympic Committee of Hong Kong. Altogether fifty-one athletes and Officials went to Tokyo including cyclists, rifle marksmen, boxers, yachtsmen and an athletics team, and if they brought back no medals they were certainly not disgraced. Indeed their very parti- cipation, and the standards they did achieve in international com- petition are remarkable for so small a territory with so few advan- tages in this field.
Very many of those who shine in competitive sport in Hong Kong are members of sports and athletics clubs which are privately run by their members and whose only assistance from public funds may have consisted of the short-term lease of land on special terms. But for most people the opportunities to indulge in sports which require special facilities, or even to stroll in a park, must depend on the provision of these amenities by Government.
The management of parks, playgrounds and other amenities in the urban area is vested in the Urban Council, working through the Urban Services Department. In the New Territories, these functions are the responsibility of the Urban Services Department working in consultation with the District Commissioner.
Within the framework of the many competing demands for land in the built-up areas, further substantial progress was made during