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Prevention of Disease and Unrest.
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7. In short the Colony was too pre-occupied in looking forward and in consolidating the initial advantage which it seemed to have gained over its neighbours, to worry unduly about the privations and restrictions to which it was still sub- jected. And it was natural, perhaps, in a world in which personal problems and opportunities assumed such impressive proportions, that evidences of a larger social conscience should be noticeably lacking. No new figures emerged as the leaders of Chinese opinion, and the Administration relied upon the Government's pre-war Chinese advisers; such disapproval as there was from certain sections of the public was at no time strong enough to produce alternative candidates.
8. It may be reckoned to the great good fortune of Hong Kong and to its neighbouring areas that no epidemic of infectious disease appeared in the first few months of the re-occupation; for the Colony would have been in no position to meet it. This immunity was as surprising as it was fortunate, since it would be safe to say that during the later stages of the Japanese occupation the ordinary rules of public hygiene had been completely ignored. Eighty per cent of the population showed signs of malnutrition in some form or other, and both hospitals and out-patient clinics were pitifully inadequate. A serious attempt at alleviating these con- ditions, however, depended upon other considerations which required immediate attention. Garbage and refuse had to be cleared from every back-street and alleyway, and even from the main thoroughfares where they had been allowed to accumulate in huge heaps. Drains and nullahs had to be repaired and cleaned; improvisations had to be devised to replace costly sanitary fittings which had been ruthlessly torn down; the reservoir filters had to be renewed; and some attempt had to be made to remedy the prevalence of malaria throughout the Colony due to four years cynical neglect of the Colony's anti-malarial works. Conservancy arrangements had to be completely re-organized and the immediate problems of routine sanitation had to be dealt with piecemeal and by compromise. With generous assistance from the service medical authorities, the two Government hospitals and the larger Chinese hospitals were rehabilitated, and the Administration assumed financial responsibility for the Nethersole and French Hospitals. Out-patient dispensaries and health centres were established and extended to outlying areas.
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9. The effects of the re-organization and extension of the medical and sanitary services were soon apparent, but it was several months before the possibility of being able to stem an out- break of infectious disease could be contemplated with any justifiable confidence, since the efforts of the medical authorities were impeded at every turn by the failure of expected supplies and delay in the arrival of key personnel.
10. Lack of personnel, however, assumed even more alarming proportions in the case of the police force than of the medical service, since, for the first three months of the Adminis- tration, the force was required to operate with a maximum of 95 officers of the rank of inspector and above, out of an approved war establishment of 321. Reliance upon military assistance in the preservation of law and order and the prevention of unrest was, therefore, a feature not only of the initial stages but of the whole period of the Administration. Again the Colony was fortunate in that at no time did the behaviour of the population give serious cause for alarm. Armed robberies and piracies occurred but these were never out of hand and never exceeded what might reasonably have been expected. Minor complications in the policing of the Colony arose from the presence throughout the period of large numbers of servicemen of different nationalities and in particular of the gendarmerie attached to the large bodies of Chinese troops in transit through Hong Kong. Temporary embarrassments were also caused by the disposal of certain secret service organizations whose help was enlisted immediately following the Japanese surrender, and by the sporadic activities of Kuomintang and Communist sympathisers.
11. The provision by the services of the greater part of the personnel for the maintenance of law and order had a further and more far-reaching effect; it made possible the first and most important stages in the complete re-organization of the rank and file of the local police force. The results of these innovations are yet to be proved, but the fact that so ambitious a scheme could be initiated in the early days of the Military Administration is, perhaps, worthy of record.
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