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10. During the course of our enquiries we had occasion from time to time to make recommendations to the Government, either in respect of specific matters . referred to us by His Excellency the Governor, or in connection with questions on which we considered early action should be taken. We have thought it better to embody the substance of these recommendations in our final report rather than to annex them thereto in the form of interim reports.
11. In conclusion we desire to place on record our appreciation of the assist- ance we have received from our Secretary, Mr. B. C. K. Hawkins, from Mrs. P. C. Stott who acted as typist and stenographer to the Commission for the five months, August-December, 1934, and from Mr. R. W. II. Maynard who took over these duties on Mrs. Stott's resignation and who has most competently carried out the arduous work involved in the final stages of preparation of this Report. We are also indebted to Miss J. Langley who acted as assistant typist for a period of two months in 1934.
Chapter III.
GENERAL.
The island of Hong Kong consists of a range of hills rising out of the sea. On the north side is the harbour backed by the City of Victoria. On the mainland, facing the City of Victoria across the harbour, is the complementary City of Kow- loon with a similar range of hills in the immediate background. Beyond, and up to the frontier, lies three hundred square miles of hilly country with a few valleys of fertile land cultivated under Chinese methods. During the ninety odd years of British occupation a crowded urban community of a million people, the vast majority of whom are Chinese, has sprung up with the harbour as its centre. This community is sustained by the Trade and Industry of the Colony, agriculture being comparatively negligible.
2. Hong Kong consequently is not an economic entity even in the most restrict- ed sense of the word and it could not, even if it would, adopt the principles of the present world wave of economic nationalism. As a community and as a trade centre it is a portion of China from which it is separated by political barriers. It shares in the strength or weakness of its neighbour's conditions and institutions. It has a relatively small Hong Kong domiciled population and its inhabitants are in the main transient workers and business men from the neighbouring province of Kwangtung who flock into the Colony when employment is available but who do not sever their interests in their family holdings on the land nor, in many cases, bring their families from their villages to reside permanently in Hong Kong. Wide- spread unemployment does not, therefore, bring in its train the serious social prob- lems it does in other countries. In general it merely results in an exodus of the workers and their temporary reabsorption in their village communities in the interior of China.
3. A depression may not, therefore, be obvious to the casual visitor to the Colony. Its visible signs are not apparent. One does not see processions of un- employed or an undue number of empty premises and shops. On the contrary, the outward appearance of the main streets seems as animated as ever, perhaps even more so as lighting improvements and reconstruction continue to transform the main thoroughfares, which indeed at the present time appear to be hives of activity. In comparison with neighbouring Eastern cities at any rate, the standard of well being of the populace is well maintained.
4. As the Colony is an urban community possessing but a small agricultural hinterland, its production of basic raw materials is negligible and it produces only a fraction of the foodstuffs it consumes. Its real commercial hinterland is South China from which it is separated by a (political) and, what is (more important a (tariff barrier) (Internal trade, usually so important as the basis of the economic
equilibrium of a nation, is (practically non-existent.
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