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IMMIGRATION AND TOURISM
to Hong Kong in August), and for naturalization as British subjects. Pressure started to ease in November as the situation in the Colony slowly returned to normal.
The department also processes applications for travel documents and visas, and deals with citizenship problems, on behalf of all Commonwealth territories not directly represented in Hong Kong, and the volume of this work increased considerably during the year. There were the usual seasonal rushes of students going abroad to study, primarily in Britain, Canada, and the USA. The pattern of emigration to Britain did not change a great deal during the year. Although the number of Chinese men going to Britain to work has fallen off, the number of dependents joining husbands and fathers already working there increases. The number of aliens resident in Hong Kong has grown and most of them are employed in foreign business concerns. A much more liberal attitude has now been adopted in dealing with applications from aliens to work and live in the Colony and, as a result, many difficulties previously encountered over evasions of the regulations have now disappeared. At the end of 1966 there were 14,523 alien residents registered in the Colony, the largest group consisting of citizens of the USA numbering 4,581, followed by 2,093 Japanese, 2,031 Portuguese, 799 Filipinos, 552 Dutch, and 525 Indonesians. During the year, 32 White Russian refugees entered the Colony from China, and 43 left for settlement in other countries under the sponsorship of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. At the end of the year there were still 29 refugees in this category in Hong Kong awaiting placement, together with 10 Spaniards (former members of the French Foreign Legion and their families), who had entered Hong Kong from North Vietnam under the same arrangement.
The cultural revolution in China drastically affected traffic over the Sino-British border at Lo Wu, and at one time daily movements in each direction barely exceeded 100. The volume temporarily increased in April and November when the Canton Trade Fairs were held, and at the end of the year daily traffic averaged about 672 each way. During the year, 205,594 people left Hong Kong for China, while 219,629 entered the Colony from there. From mid-June onwards, immigration officers working on the border were subjected to considerable harassment, culminating in August