COP
O PY
252
Hong Kong Governor's Annual Report for 1948.
Honourable Members,
Copies of the Annual Report for the year 1948 have beer. laid on the table. This saves me the labour of having to give an account in detail of the Colony's activities during the past 12 month and Honourable Members the tedium of having to listen to a long address. I shall confine myself to the principal features in the Report and to any other outstanding matters during the past year. shall then go on to talk of the ensuing 12 months and the future generally.
I
To begin with, I shall deal with the out-turn of the Colony's trade. I make no apology for taking this first. Trade is the life blood of this Colony. If trade is good everyone propers, the Exchequer is full and we can afford to spend more on social serv-
If ices and other developments than would otherwise be the case. trade is bad, then everyone suffers, including Government revenue and hence the things that Government can undertake. It was Napoleon, I believe, who taunted the English people with being a nation of shop- keepers. That was a taunt of which the English people were proud. So, too, I am proud of being Governor of a Colony of shopkeepers. Trade flourishes under conditions of peace; it does not during war. Thus traders are the best advocates of peace, of which, alas, the world has had so little in recent years.
When I spoke to you a year ago I had some fear that 1948 would fall below 1947. In actual fact that has not proved to be so. 1948 has been a record year for the Colony's trade with a total value of imports and exports of £229 millions sterling, an in- crease of approximately 32% over 1947. Not only is this boom in commercial activity borne out by the trade figures, but we can see its effects with our own eyes in the general air of prosperity and the amount of building that has taken, and is taking, place. The only unsatisfactory feature of the past year has been the general decline in our trade with China, which still, however, remains our principal customer. For details I invite attention to Chapter 5 of the Annual Report. As regards industry, which is dealt with on pages 62 to 65 of the Report, the year was generally a difficult one with increased competition in foreign markets. At the same tim new industries have developed, cotton spinning has now fully established itself while metallurgical industries have considerably expanded, with the assistance in particular of machine tools delivered under the Japanese reparation scheme. New industries include plastics and the manufacture of textile machinery and elec irons. Industries are tending to develop on a larger scale than pre-war and to be housed in proper factory type buildings instead in tenements. Whilst the spirit of the manufacturers is encouragi
and here I should like to pay tribute to the Chinese Manufacture.
The Union, much has still to be done to modernise equipment. future of Hong Kong industry, on the long term view, remains obscu That 1948 was a boom year is also borne out by the figures for shipping, air and rail travel, and mails handled. Shipping figure for 1948 are 22,400,750 tons as compared with 18,990,420 tons in 1947. There are now 25,000 passengers arriving and departing ever month from Kai Tak, which is now handling almost as much traffic, should say, as any airport in the Empire. The Railway carried nearly 3 million passengers, an increase of 34% over 1947 and 31; higher than the previous highest number in 1936. The Post Office handles more than 1,000 bags of mail a day, which shown an increase of 44% over 1947 in respect of ordinary mail and of one third in respect of air mail. Nearly $10 millions worth of stamps were sold, an increase of nearly 30% over 1947.
1