Directory_and_Chronicle_1932 — Page 986

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HONGKONG

dition and he was the first to propose the raising of local loans for public works. This idea however found little favour during his period of office and was never put into force. His government was marked by the progress made in the transfer of military lands, in port and harbour development, water supply schemes, improved means of communication and town planning. Sir R. E. Stubbs was succeeded as Governor by Sir Cecil Clementi, K.C.B., in the autumn of 1925 when a strike and boycott were in progress.

It is too early yet to estimate the value of Sir Cecil Clementi's work as Governor of Hongkong. It was not of the usual kind. It did not express itself in roads, typhoon shelters and buildings, as did that of Sir Reginald Stubbs, but his memorial is to be found in the hearts of the Chinese people. He succeeded to the governorship at a time when the exchequer was depleted and the state of feeling between the English and Chinese was very embittered. It was his work to heal this breach and his function to restore harmony, which an interchange of friendly visits in March 1928 between Sir Cecil and Mar- shall Li Tsai-hsin did much to accomplish. Two acts of his helped greatly towards the solution of this problem, the appointment of a Chinese member to the Executive Council and of a third Chinese member to the Legislative Council. During his administration Sir Cecil adopted a policy of paying for large public works by means of local loans, thus freeing current revenue for necessary though smaller improvements. The establishment of a Language School at Hongkong University will always be associated with his name, and his deep interest in and the support he gave to the University and learning in general will long be remembered.

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The third decade of the century was marked by immense development of the Colony and also by many striking public events. As elsewhere, there has been in Hong Kong a surprising increase in the facilities for public enter- tainment and recreation. In 1921 fewer than 500 motor vehicles were licensed: in 1931 the number was well over 3,000. Rickshas and chairs are accordingly reduced in number. Moving picture theatres of modern type have also in- creased, and considerably extended hotel accommodation (including provision for music and dancing) attracts many more people into the centres of popula- tion than was formerly the case. Wireless developments have advanced the science of meteorology and increased the valuable services of the Hong Kong Observatory to navigation; the public also has now the advantage of radio broadcasting. In the period under review the Chinese first developed a keen interest in football and bathing. Chinese football teams now frequently defeat such practised exponents of the game as members of the garrison. New motor roads have developed extensive building areas on which innumerable single residences and streets of houses have been built. A motor road to the Peak was the largest of these enterprises subsequent to the road round the Island and the New Territories. Building development has occurred especially in Kowloon where town-planning schemes have attracted a population shown by the 1931 census to be more than double that of 1921. Numerous services of motor buses serve the transport needs of the population, leading to the con- struction of the first reinforced concrete roads in the Colony. Development has been accelerated by pressure of arrivals from China where disturbed con- ditions have prevailed practically throughout the decade. The Chinese realised that the Colony afforded a safe refuge for person and property: they came in such numbers as to cause a considerable advance in the cost of living and a land boom from 1921 to 1924 (3 million dollars worth of land was sold by the Government on long lease in 1923 alone, and 9 millions in four years). In times of drought there have been acute water shortages, notably in 1929 when water had to be imported by steamer and supplied to the public from tanks on the water-front. Waterworks extension, referred to elsewhere, should make shortages a thing of the past. On the island the most notable achievement was the completion of the Praya East Reclamation Scheme, which doubles the area of Wanchai, while in Kowloon the construction of what will be a model city of vast dimensions progressed year by year as hill after hill was cut down and used to level up insanitary depressions and extend the deep sea frontage.