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I mention this fact because it is generally
advances in public health are dependent very largely upon a proper
agreed that evaluation by the community of higher standards of living and these, in turn, are more readily appreciated by a literate population.
Furthermore, if, as it is to be hoped, a widely representative form of municipal Government is to be fostered in Hong Kong, it goes without saying that the inauguration of such a body will be facilitated if the general standard of literacy of the elektorate is reasonably high. And that is yet another major post- war problem for the Hong Kong Government to solve.
ing Hong Kong.
There is a very real need for reorientation in consider-
Geographically and ethnographically it is part of China. True, British br ins and finance and British administration and justice have helped to change abarren rock into one of the five largest and most flourishing ports in the world.
True, too, Hong Kong Island served as a valuable base for China in her fight against Japanese militarism. Chinese labour, brains and money," Hong Kong would not have attained
But without to its international importance.
If the three and a half trying years of Japanese occupation have taught us only one thing, it is that the large majority of the Chinese community have not been apathetic or hostile to the allied cause, but that they have stood by us despite taunts, indignities, privations, imprisonment, nay, the very loss of their lives.
And now it is our turn to prove to them that we do realise our deep debt of gratitude towards them. Yes, there were
uislings and, possibly, some war criminals; handful whom we can afford to disregard.
but they were a miserat je
We are fortunate in England in possessing a Government and a Colonial Office that fully realise their responsibilites towards dependent territories; that intend to see an enlightened policy carried out in Hong Kong, the foundation of which is the idea of co-partnership (not that patronising term "trusteeship" implying subservience or, at any rate, dependence), that intend that the cultural and health standards of the Chinese should be raised; and that the people of Hong Kong should be in a position to govern themselves within the framework of the British Co-monwealth.
Lastly, let us forget as soon as possible the horrors and beastliness of the past war, banishing thoughts of vengeance and reparation (leaving to God and their conscience the guilty ones), and let us fix our vision on the new and better world to come.