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1.
Notes on War Office 011830, February, on Hong Kong's Food Situation
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Supplies other than Government supplies available in Hong Kong derive from two sources;-
Stocks which went underground after the occupation and are now re-appearing. These are largely luxury goods, quantities are small (little more than is visibly displayed in the shops) and prices are naturally exorbitant. There are some essentials in this category, e.g. piece goods, canned foods, but quentities are so insignificant that it would be futile to make any attempt to bring them under control, even if desirable, in the absence of our own supplies.
The report speaks of 'nominal prices' for these goods; this is unintelligible. The price of English tweed is over $100 per yard, and of whisky $150 per bottle; most goods in this category sell for around 6 to 10 times their 1941 price. sales are very slow, there is an appearance of inexhaustible stocks.
(b)
As
Supplies imported from China. These are largely food and drink, mostly of a semi-essential nature. Prices in China are high and, as Hong Kong is as yet unable to make available entrepot goods at world prices, the prices charged to Hong Kong must inevitably remain high. The quantities being imported are governed by the local demand for these goods at current Chinese prices. No attempt can be made to control these prices, as to do so would merely cause this present moderate flow to cease altogether, The illusion of a 'glut' is again caused by the slow movement of these goods; prices are well out of the range of the bulk of the population.
2.
Attached is a list of local prices (per 1.1/3rd lbs.) of goods in these categories at 10th and 17th February.
To put them in prospective they must be read in conjunction with a basic daily wage rate of approximately $2, including allowances, End Government prices for Rice of 20c, Sugar 35c, Beef $1.20 to $1.70.
3.
The picture is that met with in most re-occupied territories. There is nothing that cannot be bought if price is no object; the standard of living of the rich is as high as ever it was. But there is a serious shortage of almost all things (except on so far as the Government has been able to import them) essential to the life of the ordinary man. As a local paper put it recently: "You cannot keep a whole population alive on peacocks' tongues and caviare."
4.
The Australian correspondent may have been misled to some extent by the fact that UNRRA is now stockpiling in Hong Kong large quantities of supplies and stores for China for which it is at present unable to arrange forward Transportation. On 16th February there were some 6000 Tons of UNRRA supplies in the Hong Kong Godo (flour, milk, canned beef etc.) while a portion of the wharves at Kowloon Dock: us stocked with UNRRA stores (Bulldozers, machinery etc.) which they were unable to clear. (This ship which had brought these stores had to leave her berth only partly discharged as no more could be brought ashore until the outward flow had started.
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