41
COLONIAL SECRETARIAT LIBRARY
The Blue Funnel Line, Osaka Syosen Kaisya, Nippon Yusen Kaisya and American President Lines, Ltd. to the United States of America.
The Canadian Pacific S.S. Ltd. and the Blue Funnel Line to Vancouver B.C.
The Eastern and Australian Line, Australian Oriental Line, Burns Philp Line, Nippon Yusen Kaisya and Osaka Syosen Kaisya to Australian ports.
The Java-China-Japan Line and the Royal Packet Navigation Co. (K.P.M. Line) to Java and other ports in the Dutch East Indies.
The Indo-China S.N. Co., Ltd., China Navigation S.S. Co., and other small lines to ports on the east and south coast of China and Formosa.
The British India, Shire, Glen and Bank Lines also call at Hong Kong.
The River Service to Canton and the West River, previously run by the Hong Kong, Canton & Macao Steamboat Co.'s ships and other smaller companies, is now at a standstill on account of the Sino-Japanese hostilities.
In addition, there is normally a vast traffic between Hong Kong and the adjacent provinces of China by junk. This, at present, is much depleted.
The total shipping entering and clearing ports in the Colony during the year 1938 amounted to 67,007 vessels of 30,962,756 tons. This, compared with 1937, shewed a decrease of 6,250 vessels and 6,868,004 tons.
24,670 vessels of 29,530,384 tons were engaged in foreign trade compared with 38,782 vessels of 36,191,724 tons in 1937. British ocean-going shipping shewed a decrease of 326 vessels and 312,456 tons. Foreign ocean-going shipping shewed a decrease of 2,070 vessels and 5,133,209 tons.
British river steamers shewed an increase of 276 vessels and 402,207 tons. Foreign river steamers shewed a decrease of 1,191 vessels and 614,251 tons. Steamships, not exceeding 60 tons, in foreign trade shewed a decrease of 2,497 vessels and 57,359 tons.
Junks in foreign trade shewed a decrease of 3,304 vessels and 946,272 tons.
In local trade, steam launches shewed a decrease of 307 vessels and 1,094 tons, and junks shewed an increase of 3,169 vessels but a decrease of 205,570 tons.
AVIATION.
Hong Kong Airport is situated at Kai Tak and has facilities for marine and land aircraft. The equipment of the airport includes W/T and R/T (short and medium wave) and D/F, aeronautical meteorological service, administration building, offices and workshops of operating companies, fuel and oil installations with tankage for some 7,000 gallons of petrol, and full night flying facilities for land aircraft, including a 1,200,000 c.p. floodlight installed during 1938. A new terminal building has been constructed for traffic arriving by flying boat services; a slipway, pontoon and special mooring buoys are available for marine aircraft.
The continued growth of civil aviation caused a large increase in the amount of traffic handled at Kai Tak Airport, for example, the number of passengers arriving and departing has risen from 3,685 in 1937 to 9,969 in the year under review. Hong Kong was included in the Empire "all-up" air mail scheme in September, and from that date Imperial Airways Ltd. operated its service to Bangkok twice, instead of once weekly and services were often duplicated. In August Air France extended its Paris-Hanoi service to Hong Kong. The following air lines now maintain regular schedules from the airport:
Imperial Airways Ltd., twice weekly to Bangkok, connecting with the England-Australia trunk route.