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For the Colony it was virtually export or starve. But there was a wonderful pioneering, 'get-up-and-go' spirit. Yet life for many was hard,
In the '50s and '60s it was not considered infra dig to use the word 'Colony.' Not until early 1972, at China's behest, was Hong Kong removed from the United Nations list of colonies. The then new Governor, the late Sir (later Lord) Murray MacLehose, gave instructions that government servants would use the word '(Dependent) Territory' instead. 'Colony' was only to be used in an historical context. As a result the Colonial Secretary became the Chief Secretary, the Colonial Secretariat became Central Government Offices, and so on. At least as far as the Hong Kong Government was concerned. Nevertheless some people and bodies - the BBC for example - used the term 'Colony' right up to 1997 - which of course, strictly speaking, it was.
Sir Murray, nevertheless, and indeed the two governors after him, on ceremonial occasions, still wore the distinctive sola topi from which sprouted a peculiar crop of egret feathers. Later it became the subject of jokes and snide remarks, not so much from the Chinese who accept one should dress for the part, but more from younger Europeans.
Today, it is fashionable to talk disparagingly of colonial things and ideas in spite of the solid foundations laid for the Territory in a wide variety of fields from law to administration. But of course, mistakes were also made.
When writing of the very early 1960s I am of course writing of times when there were no cross-harbour tunnels, no service charges in hotels or restaurants, and no feeding hungry tigers (parking metres). The first flyover was not constructed until 1963. This was outside Saint Teresa's Church in Kowloon. There were few traffic lights then and the job was done efficiently by constables with fancy footwork and arm movements standing on picturesque traffic pagodas. These were originally designed by our old friend, Arthur May, who worked in the PWD. He came to Hong Kong in 1913 as a child. He died in January 2000. It was he who crept up the Peak on 15 August 1945 and raised the Union Jack to tell the people of Hong Kong the Japanese had been defeated. If anyone could describe himself as an Old Hong Kong Hand Arthur could.