343 said to have returned 'mysteriously' in 1945. They were watched carefully during the 1967 riots. When I went back to Marine Police Headquarters a year or so after the 1997 Handover, from Britain to China, the pigeons were no longer there. "They are flying around Tsim Sha Tsui,' I was informed.
In many respects the social history of the Territory, together with its myths and legends, has been as exciting as any novel.
Half a century ago many of us who lived and worked in colonial Hong Kong gave limited thought to the future and the forces of modernity. Even if we had, it is unlikely that we would have envisaged anything like the degree of change that has actually taken place during which the world map has been redrawn.
If a person is unable to adjust to change then, certainly, Hong Kong is not the place to be. If it is any consolation the pace of change is even more likely to accelerate in the future. In this paper I have looked at the past 50 years with special emphasis on the 1950s and 60s. What will the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region be like in the middle of the 21st century?
But that has to be another story.