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History
THE visit of Her Majesty the Queen made 1975 a landmark in the history of Hong Kong. It was the first time that a reigning British monarch had set foot on the soil of Hong Kong. Other members of the Royal family have paid visits on 17 occasions and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who accompanied the Queen, was making a return visit. It was an earlier Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Alfred, who in 1869 made the first Royal visit to Hong Kong. He called while on a world tour.
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For the Queen and Prince Philip, their four-day stay was crowded with meeting people, celebrating with them, and seeing how they live, work and play. Her Majesty told 600 guests at a luncheon: 'We have come to see the remarkable phenomenon which is modern Hong Kong. ... I am aware of the conditions which history has forced on Hong Kong and my predominant feeling is pride that so much has been achieved.... You benefit from the confluence of the two great cultural streams of East and West.'
The modern Hong Kong which the Royal couple came to see began to take shape only 30 years ago. It was not until after the Second World War that Hong Kong began the spectacular spiral in industrial, trade and social development which produced the phenomenon referred to by the Queen. It was an unprecedented joining together of people from East and West which began it all.
Post-War Years
During the war, many Chinese civilians had moved from Hong Kong into China. They returned in 1945 along with many other Chinese and, between August 1945 and the end of 1947, the population rose from 600,000 to an estimated 1,800,000. Then in the period 1948-9, as the forces of the Chinese Nationalist Government began to face defeat in civil war at the hands of the communists, Hong Kong received an influx of people unparalleled in its history.
About three quarters of a million, mainly from Kwangtung province, Shanghai and other commercial centres, entered during 1949 and the spring of 1950. By the end of 1950 the population was estimated to be 2,360,000. Since then it has continued to rise. The 1971 census put the population at 4,064,400.
After a period of economic stagnation, caused by American trade barriers against China, which applied temporarily to Hong Kong, and further sanctions against China following the Korean War (1950–3), Hong Kong entered an era of industrialisation. As an entrepôt, the territory had earned a livelihood by a service which it alone could perform; now it found itself directly competing with other manufacturing centres.
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