1946-1947 — Page 2

APPENDIX I.I.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE GENERAL MANAGER,

KOWLOON CANTON RAILWAY.

The following Report, the first since the re-occupation of the Colony under the Civil Administration covers a period of 11 months from 1st May 1946 to 31st March, 1947.

2. General. The working conditions of this Department to-day are not comparable with those of the period prior to hostilities against Hong Kong, and therefore any attempt to use the year 1941 as a yardstick is to be entirely unrealistic.

Perhaps the most striking of these differences are the introduction of the 8 hour day, the high cost of labour and fuel, and the fact that this small line of 36 kilometres is connected intimately with a large Continental Railway, the Canton-Hankow Line, for a total distance of 1275 kilometres with all the delicate day to day negotiations including a difference in currency which such a union involves. It is true that the original connection was made in August 1937, but it then served a predominantly military purpose, commercial traffic being negligible.

3.

The meagre rail terminal facilities which existed at Kowloon before the war will soon be inadequate to deal with the traffic offering; they would already have been inadequate, but for China's currency exchange difficulties. Various schemes have been suggested, but an important omission in nearly all of them is the absence of a designated factory area on the mainland which the Railway could serve. Such a site is considered almost as important to the future development of the Colony as a whole, as the effective clearance of cargo through the Port to and from the interior.

The final railway scheme must necessarily conform to the major plan for the development of the Colony, but the time has arrived for detailed plans to be prepared.

4.

The legacy left by the Military Administration to the Civil Control was a melancholy one so far as the Railway was concerned. With the exception of 12 locomotives and spares, some bridge girders, and token instruments, the Railway stores were negligible in quantity. No rails or rolling stock were received and at the close of the year only 6 of the locomotives had arrived and these were not provided with