ENG-1946 — Page 14

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should exercise the fullest possible control over municipal finance. Many individuals and representatives of public bodies and of local communities came forward during Septem- ber and October, 1946, and put forward their further views on the question of constitutional reform. At the end of the period under review the Governor's recommendations were receiving the consideration of the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Colonial Development and Welfare Act.

It had also been necessary to set aside until the resump- tion of Civil Government the task of considering how the Colony's interests might best be served in the application of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act, 1945. Under the terms of the Act the sum of £1,000,000 had been allocated by His Majesty's Government for the development of the Colony's resources and for the furtherance of the people's welfare, and a separate sum had been set aside to enable individual Colonies to participate in approved central schemes such as research projects. In June, 1946, the Governor set up a Committee of ten persons to consider the relative merits of various schemes already put forward and to produce a comprehensive and detailed plan for the development and welfare of the Colony during the period 1946-1956, bearing in mind the principle that the cost of such a plan should be borne not only by the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund but also by such contribution from the Colony's revenue as might prove possible. At the end of 1946 this Committee, which was under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Development and which included both official representation and unofficial representatives of all communities of the Colony, was still in session. In November, 1946, the membership of the Com- mittee was enlarged with a view to making it still more fully representative of all communities and at the same time six sub-committees were appointed to consider in detail questions related to Housing and Town Planning, Port Development, Public Health, Natural Resources, Welfare and Education respectively.

Commerce and Industry.

The economic and commercial progress made by the Colony since the war has already been briefly referred to; at the end of August, 1945, the economic life of Hong Kong was dead. The population was greatly reduced in numbers; utilities were barely functioning; there was no food, no ship- ping, no industry, no commerce. Rice was brought in early from Siam and an adequate ration provided, while other sup- plies began to come in from the mainland, though supplies from overseas were slow in coming forward. The people with their native industry and genius for improvisation set them- selves at once to the task of restoring Hong Kong to its proper