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After considerable discussion, Government eventually (October, 1945) decided to fix the basic wage for an unskilled manual labourer at one dollar per day, with a temporary high cost of living allowance of a similar sum.
It was the intention of the British Government to do all in its power to reduce the cost of living as soon as possible, in fact, figures show that a steady fall in prices is taking place.
Currency which constituted yet another pre sing problem was dealt with by reintroducing the original dollar currency overnight without attaching any exchange value to the Japanese military yen which, automatically, ceased to be of any value.
Medical and health problems loomed largely after the
recapture of the Colony.
As in this country, housing and town-planning demands immediate attention to make good the depredations resulting from bombs shells, incendiaries and looters. Associated with this, is the need for a comprehensive sewerage and drainage plan which is, again, dependent upon decisions awaited on harbour development.
It is surely an anachronism (apart from being objectionable from an hygienic standpoint) to compel house builders to construct dry closets in urban areas where a water-carriage flush system is long overdue.
Extensive repairs, renovations, and extensions to the water supply of the Colony and Leased Territories call for early action in the interests of public health.
The Japanese neglected anti-malarial measures with serious consequences and set the clock back to pre-1930 days when the Malarial Bureau first came into being.
As regards hospitals and medical facilities, the majority remained intact, apart from loss of apparatus and equipment removed by the Japanese and their Formosan underlings.
This satisfactory state of affairs is thanks to the admirable loyalty of the Chinese staff who stayed in Hong Kong at my request and suffered constant humiliations and hardships under Japanese occupation.
Now that the population is streaming back to Hong Kong a fine testimony to the value attached by the Chinese to British administration, protection and justice - hospital accommodation, out- patient and welfare facilities will soon prove inadequate, as was the case in 1938. For this reason it is to be hoped that the British Government will not delay in implementing the decisions reached (and supported by the Secretary of State for the Colonies) following the Hospital Committee's Report, 1938-1939.
Incidentally, it is very gratifying to friends of the Chinese to note that it is the intention of the Colonial Office that Chinese should be employed in connection with the restoration and extension of medical and public health facilities in Hong Kong. It is to be hoped that uropeans will only be appointed where they are of exceptional calibre and they can make some special contribution towards the rehabilitation of Hong Kong.
Educationally the Colony suffered a heavy blow during 1941-1945. In accordance with their avowed policy to eliminate centres of culture in the Far East outside the Japanese Empire, the Japanese militarists destroyed (or permitted Chinese looters to destroy) many valuable educational institutions, as, for example, the Hong Kong University, King's and ueen's Colleges.
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