staff had arrived for duty on the morning of 12th June. Such was the volume of water flowing down the hillsides into the city, that by about 7.45 a.m. Connaught Road between Mercury House and the City Hall was four feet deep in flood-water. Mains power in Mercury House failed shortly thereafter and water cascading through the entrance hall made the starting of the building's emergency diesel generators impossi- ble. At about this time the Controller of the English Service arrived, having swum through heavy debris floating in the streets around the Cricket Club; all other senior staff were isolated by landslides and floods. With power gone, all studios were out of action. Nevertheless, it was found possible to rig up in the Central Control Room a combina- tion of a microphone, a hand driven turntable and a set of batteries, and with these primitive tools Radio Hong Kong managed to maintain a feed of the important news broadcasts and special situation announce- ments in both English and Chinese. The transmitters, which luckily were not affected by power cuts, were kept in action by means of a low powered VHF link transmitter in the control room.
14. Matters improved after about an hour and power was restored. Radio Hong Kong then set about the task of calling in available staff, briefing them on as much of the situation as was known and sending out teams of reporters to gather news and information which could tell the Colony of the extent of the catastrophe.
15. The staff responded magnificently, as they always do, and many braved physical danger in order to report for duty.
16. The 1967 political disturbances presented Radio Hong Kong with a severe test of manpower and resources. The disturbances themselves have been fully chronicled elsewhere, but from the broad- casting point of view they graphically illustrated the absolute need for the Government to maintain an efficient and credible line of communica- tion with the people of the Colony which can be relied upon to function efficiently and continuously.
17. The department is not adequately staffed to fulfil this function indefinitely and it was only by a considerable reorganization of available personnel and drastic alterations to programme schedules that a twenty four hour service of news and information, designed to counter rumours and rebut propaganda, was established and maintained for an extended period of time.
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