its doors. A few days later, on 4th February, the proprietor filed his petition in bankruptcy, and a receiving order was made the same day.
6. This was bad enough, but worse was to follow. On 7th February 1965 a run began on the Aberdeen branch of The Canton Trust and Commercial Bank Ltd in consequence of rumours that the Bank was in difficulties. This was immediately followed by runs on the other branches, and the Commissioner of Banking was directed to assume control on the 8th. At the same time runs developed on several other Chinese banks, and since all this coincided with the Chinese New Year period when the demand for cash is always at the maximum, an acute shortage of cash developed, making it necessary for the Government to use its powers under the Emergency Regulations Ordinance and enact the Emergency (Bank Control). Regulations 1965. Under these, subject to certain exceptions, a limit of $100 a day was imposed on payments from any one account, and Bank of England notes, £20,000,000 of which were flown out from Britain, were pronounced legal tender. These meas- ures, coupled with timely assistance to other banks by the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation and The Chartered Bank, had the necessary steadying effect, and further closures were averted. The Canton Trust and Commercial Bank Ltd, however, remained closed and was still under the control of the Banking Commissioner at the end of the year. None of The Bank of England notes sent from Britain were ever issued.
7. The Canton Trust and Commercial Bank Ltd had been founded in 1931 as The Canton Trust Ltd and had functioned in a comparatively modest fashion until 1960 when it began to expand rapidly. In 1962 it increased its nominal capital to $10,000,000 and its issued capital to $5,001,680, and by February 1965 it had opened twenty-six branches in addition to its head office, seven of these being in the New Territories. These new branches attracted thousands of small depositores to such an extent that it was found in February to have over 100,000 accounts totalling over $147,000,000.
The Property Market
8. Last year's Report recorded that 'the great building boom of recent years forged strongly ahead, and the sound of the pile-driver was in everyone's ear.' That sound, at least in many of the older parts of the urban areas, ceased with a paralysing abruptness in September 1964 when the Buildings (Amendment) (No. 2) Ordinance 1964 was
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