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and disasters these past 30 years: there can, for example, be very

few communities in the world who could have withstood, overcome and

then flourished again after the harrowing period of the Pacific

War, the post-war period and the early 1950s when our population

increased dramatically from 460 000 to some 21⁄2 million: in one

sixth month period over 500 000 people streamed across the border

into Hong Kong from China. Following that, and with the outbreak

of the Korean War our entrepot function virtually ceased. But Hong

Kong did not sit back and bemoan its fate: this is not our style.

Our energies were diverted into developing our own industries, into

developing our own trade. Aid from outside was minimal, our task

mind-bogglingly enormous. We have to haul ourselves up by our

bootstraps but first we had to make those bootstraps!

Those were real years of difficulty and trial, but they led

to a certain economic success which we are determined to maintain.

Hong Kong is now the world's leading exporter of toys, complete

watches, metal watch-bands, radios, artificial flowers, torches

and candles in value or in quantity terms; and, aftor Italy, we are

the second largest exporter of clothing in the world.

virtually full employment and, in Asia, our wages are second only

We have

to Japan.

/Of course

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