Directory_and_Chronicle_1934 — Page 953

HONGKONG

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Colony, their central situation interfering with the orderly development of the city. In 1924 the Tytam Gap-Shekko Road was completed. In 1925 the Hong Kong Government contributed £250,000 towards the cost of the Singa- pore Base. A street called Po Hing Fong collapsed during heavy rains, causing great loss of life. The new Queen's Pier was completed. In 1926 a great part of the Hong Kong Hotel was destroyed by fire. Sir Paul Chater, C.M.G., "the father of the Colony," died. The Pratas Wireless Station, striven for during many years, was opened. The new Government Building on the water front in Hong Kong, King's College and a hospital in Kowloon, were completed. In 1927 the Peterson Rapid Gravity Filters at Bowen Road were brought into operation and the system was later extended to Kowloon. In 1928 the British Minister (Sir Miles Lampson, K.C.M.G.), visited the Colony. Chinese and Indian War Memorials were unveiled. An impressive Military Tattoo was held in October and the Peninsula Hotel was opened in December. The excavation and filling of the Kowloon Tong Estate was completed in that year. In 1929 the King Edward Hotel was burnt out, with loss of life. This was a year of grave water shortage and special measures to cope with it. H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester visited the Colony in April. The 90 acres of Praya East Reclamation were completed, with several large and imposing buildings including the Naval Canteen, the Seamen's Institute and the Luk Kok Hotel, one of the best and largest Chinese hotels in the Colony. A large number of houses for the middle classes were also built on this site. In this year it was proposed by the Chinese Maritime Customs that, in order to stop the increasing smuggling from Hong Kong into China which followed upon Tariff Autonomy and higher import tariffs, the Chinese Customs be allowed to function in Hong Kong. An agreement to this effect was discussed but came to nothing because China could not agree to grant Hong Kong a quid pro quo in respect of inland water navigation privileges. In 1930 the telephone system was converted to the automatic mode of operation and the Pipe Line across the Harbour was completed. In the autumn of 1929 occurred the slump in silver values which continued without remission for the next two years and was one of the con- tributory factors to a world-wide trade depression, incidentally involving the Colony (which has large commitments in sterling) in special problems and largely increased taxation. Nevertheless, the review of the decade may be completed on a hopeful note in the words used by Sir Cecil Clementi in the course of a review of 30 years of the Colony's progress which he delivered prior to the introduction of the Colonial Budget for 1928:-"The stability of our financial position has been amply tested by the events of the past thirty years. At the beginning of that period the Boxer Year came and went without any check to the Colony's progress. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 did not disturb local development in Hong Kong. Even the Chinese Revolution of 1911, followed by the Great War of 1914-18, and succeeded by disastrous years of civil war in China, continuing to this day, has not impeded the advance of this Colony, which finds itself stronger now than when the cataclysm began. We have, therefore, every right to look into the future with perfect confidence. This Colony is a marvellous exemplification of the results which

can be achieved when Britons and Chinese collaborate in the development of a country. Such collaboration has done wonders for the Far East in years gone by, and I am quite sure that the furture holds even better things in store." In 1931, the telephone trunk line between Hongkong and Canton was inaugurated while in the middle of the year, work on the largest dam in the Far East-the Shing Mun Valley Dam-was begun. The year 1933 saw the demolition of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the City Hall, which was purchased by the said bank at a cost of about one million dollars. A new building in which would be housed the bank and other offices was being built, and this promised to be one of the most imposing buildings in the Far East. The Colony's only brewery, the Hongkong Brewers and Distillers, Ltd. was also established in the same year.

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Sir Cecil Clementi was succeeded as Governor by Sir William Peel, K.B.E., K.C.M.G., in May, 1930.