Directory_and_Chronicle_1932 — Page 987

HONGKONG

901

Private enterprise has also added to the reclaimed area at North Point, Hong Kong. Another private reclamation was resumed by the Government in 1927 for an Air Port (Kai Tak Aerodrome). A Flying Club was formed in 1929. Most of the streets in the centre of Victoria, Hong Kong, have been practi- cally rebuilt with office and shopping accommodation in reinforced con- crete. The Chinese quarter to the west, however, still presents, even more acutely, the housing problem stressed by Mr. Chadwick in 1882 when the den- sity was said to be 400 to the acre: in 1930 it was 917 to the acre in an area of 211 acres! The configuration of the island makes overcrowding practically unavoidable: in the newly developed areas of Kowloon, however, width of roads has been related to height of houses and the maintenance of a proper standard of sanitation will not be so difficult. Opportunity has been taken, in con- nection with the Praya East Reclamation, to improve conditions eastward. There has been a great extension of manufacturing enterprise, particularly in Kowloon, where upwards of 300 establishments, some of them capable of a large output, are devoted to cotton sock and singlet and woollen knitted manu- facture, weaving, canning, sauce making, lard refining, perfumery and soap manufacture, the making of rubber-soled shoes, flashlight cases and batteries, hats, hardware, etc., all these in addition to the enterprises of longer standing which include shipbuilding and ship repairing, sugar refining, rope and cement making, cigarette and cigar manufacture, ginger preserving, rattanware industries, vermillion factories, firecracker making, aerated water factories, iron founding, saw mills, etc. This development of industry has led to a beginning being made with factory legislation and to the appointment of a factory inspector, though progress towards western standards will necessarily be slow.

Those with knowledge of what was going on behind the scenes in 1921 were not surprised when a strike of Chinese seamen broke out early in 1922: Labour unrest had been apparent all through the previous year, and, indeed, the European War. The strike paralysed shipping, nearly two hundred vessels being held up in the harbour without crews, protected only by the European floating staff and by helpers from shore. Violent and sometimes murderous intimidatory methods were used by the strikers who also brought about "sympathetic" strikes of coal and cargo coolies and tally clerks, culminating in a general strike of practically all Chinese workers in the Colony who withdrew to Canton and the interior of China, with the result that the com- munity maintained essential services only by emergency organisation. A tragic incident was the holding up by the police and military of a march of 2,000 strikers to Canton, when some loss of life was incurred. Early in March the strike was brought to an end by substantial concessions, urgency being given by an impending visit of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. Labour troubles con- tinued throughout the year, but gradually the workers settled down on reali- sation that leadership by agitators had only involved them in loss and hard- ship. Following this, China, particularly in the South, turned to Russian Bolshevism for a time for financial and advisory help, the fires of agitation were consequently replenished and broke forth into flame again with the Shanghai incident of May 30, 1925, when members of a mob attacking a police station in search of arms were repulsed with loss of life. Agitators used this fact to organise strikes in all foreign settlements in China, and Hong Kong was soon included. An attack was made on the Shameen, the foreign con- cession at Canton, and repelled with casualties on both sides. The "Shameen Incident" created the necessary atmosphere in Canton for conducting the newly established "National" Government on Bolshevik lines. A boycott of Shameen and Hong Kong followed and was maintained for more than a year, principally against British firms, although workers came back long before then in spite of efforts by pickets in Canton to stop them. This time the policy of restraining attempts to leave the Colony was reversed; those who would not work were deported. The boycott was most inimical to the trade interests of Hong Kong and Canton, perhaps especially the latter city. Pickets insisted that no ship which had touched at Hong Kong could be unloaded in Canton,