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IMMIGRATION AND TOURISM.
Following some relaxation of policy last year, the number of alien residents in Hong Kong has continued to grow, and at the end of 1968, there were 13,807 alien residents registered in Hong Kong, the largest group consisting of citizens of the USA, number- ing 4,705, followed by 2,012 Portuguese, 1,452 Japanese, 768 Indonesians, 711 Filipinos, and 485 Dutch. During the year, 10 White Russian refugees entered the Colony from China, and 17 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 22 refugees in this category in Hong Kong awaiting placement.
The political situation in China continues drastically to affect movement of travellers over the Sino-British Border at Lo Wu, and the daily average movement is now about 1,702. The numbers temporarily increased in April to May and October to November, when the Canton Trade Fairs were held. During the year, 308,034 people left Hong Kong for China, while 313,161 entered the Colony from there.
There has been little change in the situation in Macau and the movement of people between Hong Kong and Macau is generally at quite a low ebb. Traffic to Macau for the Grand Prix motor race in November, although up by some 51 per cent compared with the previous year, was still down 83 per cent compared with the figures for 1966.
There are now four steamers and 11 hydrofoils employed on the Macau run, and these craft during the year took 1,003,331 passengers to Macau and brought 1,032,787 into Hong Kong. This represents an increase in traffic of 2.8 per cent on the 1967 figures. During the year, the Harbour Section cleared 7,880 ocean- going ships, 13,144 native craft, and 17,047 Macau ferries and hydrofoils, and handled a total of 1,058,781 arriving and 1,029,928 departing sea passengers.
The greatest increase in traffic has been felt at Kai Tai Airport. During the year, 1,433,492 passengers and 34,039 aircraft were dealt with an increase of 15 per cent in passenger traffic and 10 per cent in aircraft on the previous year. An experiment was introduced in April of segregating arrival passengers into three categories, i.e. Hong Kong residents, aliens and British and Commonwealth subjects.