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DIRECTORATE OF C.
26 007 1948
WAR
MEMORANDUM -
ON THE FOOD SITUATION IN HONG KONG
FROM 28.8.45 TO 22.9.45
The first internees to leave Stanley Internment Camp for the purpose of setting up an administration in Hong Kong left on 27th August 1945. The Food Controller followed on 28th August 1945 in accordance with the schama which had been laid down during internment. The Food Controller was not permitted to function immediately since the Japanese were still responsible for the administration of the Colony pending the arrival of the British troops. For the first few days, therefore, British official s could not gain access to offices or records,
It was possible, however, to make a survey of the Colony "from the other side of the counter"。 The streets were not so crowded nor the shops so busy as we had known them in 1941. Nevertheless, there seemod to be ample food supplies in such shops as were open, while the
The markets ubiquitous hawker still cried his wares from the street. were only a shadow of their former bustle. A few stalls were in business, and one butcher remarked that whereas under the former British administration they had sold the carcasses of 15 beasts per day, now they had to be content with one. Beef and Fork were expensive, and enquiries showed that these articles had ceased to fom part of the daily dietary of the ordinary middle class family. Vegetables were available in small quantities, and Chinese informed the Food Controller that they had in the last months of the Japanese occupation been living mainly on rice and soya beans.
The most pleasing feature of a casual survey of the town, however, was that such shops as were open seemed to be fairly well stocked, Information reaching the department was to the effect that the Japanese had, in the period between the cessation of hostilities and the arrival of the British fleet, been flooding the market with the stocks they had accumulated in Hong Kong against a possible seige. This resulted in a big drop in prices and a considerable appreciation
For in the price of the Yen, which was the only currency in use. example, the price of rice, which in the previous twelve months had touched ¥285,00 catty (1-1/3 lbs) fall as low as 15.00 per catty. Other prices moved in sympathy.
There seemed to be ample supplies of foreign tinned goods which must have been kept since 1941. No doubt a lot had deteriorated, but there seemed to be sufficient stocks capable of meeting the demands of the market, People seen in the street seemed to be in good physical condition and there was a complete absence of beggars on the streets. Food shops seemed to be able to cater for all demands made upon them, and there was no crowding round food centres.
2. FOOD CONTROL DEPARTMENT.
The first object of the Food Control Department was to ascertain what stocks of food were available in the Colony. It quickly became apparent, however, that the Japanese had put food into all kinds of dumps and not merely into the regular godowns (warehouses). Consequently stocks of all kinds, including food, were found in A.R.P. tunnels, in Military defences dug into the hillsides, in bank vaults, and even in private houses. The presence of these supplies was usually brought to the notice of the department when the looting of them by Chinese was .reported. The immediate policy of the department, therefore, had to "be the location of these dumps, to place guards on the same, and to
transport the same to centralised depots. Such work had perforce to precede any attempted estimation of the stocks available,
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