CO129-627-5 Annual report to Parliament 1-1-1951 - 31-3-1951 — Page 5

FOR SECRETARY OF STATE'S ANNUAL REPORT TO

FARLIAMENT. 1950 51.

KEEP ON File .2

5

Information Dept. to check later with Hong Kong Dept.and Supplies Dept. in case evaluation is possible.

▷ Information Dept. to insert reference to para. ɔn the financial agreement which has been prepared by Finance Dept.

HONG KONG.

During the past year Hong Kong has naturally been considerably

affected by the establishment of the authority of the Central People's

Government over the whole of China and by the unsettled conditions

of the Far East generally.

Government have maintained in the Colony the substantial reinforce-

ments of all arts which were originally sent for the protection of

Hong Kong in May, 1949. These forces have undertaken vigorous

training the value of which has been proved by the two battalions

sent from Hong Kong to Korea in September 1950 and have maintained

themselves in a state of preparedness. During the summer a number

of incidents occurred in which ships using the south-westerni

approaches to Hong Kong were fired on from Chinese islands near the

Colony; protests were made in Feking but no reply has been received.

Despite difficulties in the early part of the year due to

In view of these conditions His Majesty's

the Chinese Nationalists' blockade of ports on the mainland of China

and over the running of through trains between Canton and Hong Fong,

the Colony's trade, both with China and the rest of the world,

continued to prosper. The outbreak of fighting in Korea in June did

not have the immediate serious effect expected and up till the end

However,

of November 1950 trade figures were breaking all records.

vutial

by the US. gamenca,

the American embargo on trade with China, which followed on the

Chinese intervention in Korea in December 1950, could not but have

an adverse effect on Hong Kong's trade and industry which cannot at

present be fully evaluated.

In the early part of the year refugees from China continued

to flood into Hong Kong to such an extent that in May, 1950, control

of Chinese immigration from China to Hong Kong was introduced for

the first time in the history of the Colony. of the other events

during the year the most important were the financial agreement

reached in May, 1950, between His Majesty's Government and the

Hong Kong Government details of which are given in paragraph'

/the