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debt and this amount. The Ordinance in addition dealt with a number of ancillary matters such as obligations contracted in occupation currency during the occupation, bank accounts maintained in occupation currency and the like. After siderable debate the Ordinance passed into law on the 18th June, 1948. Before the Ordinance could become effective it was necessary for the Moratorium to be lifted. This was delayed for some months pending consideration by the Secretary of State of a petition put forward on behalf of certain interested debtors. Ultimately the Secretary of State intimated that His Majesty would not be advised to exercise his power of disallowance of the Ordinance and the Moratorium was lifted on

the 30th November, 1948.

Development and Welfare.

Under the terms of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act, 1945, the sum of £1,000,000 was allocated by His Majesty's Government for the development of the Colony's resources and a separate sum was set aside to enable individual Colonies to participate in approved central schemes such as research projects.

A Committee composed of official and unofficial members was appointed in June, 1946, 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 partly from the £1,000,000 grant and partly from such funds as the Colony might be able to set aside for this purpose.

As a first step in the drawing up of this plan, Sir Patrick Abercrombie was invited to make a survey of the needs of Hong Kong in the matter of town planing and to prepare an outline plan for the development of the urban area. Until this Report has received full consideration it will not be possible to prepare projects involving the urban area, and attention was concentrated on the rural areas. It has been accepted in principle that £500,000, or half the sum allocated to Hong Kong, should be devoted to projects for the development of the fishing and agricultural areas and the New Territories and a comprehensive scheme comprising twelve individual projects was transmitted to the Secretary of State. Much has already been done through the Fisheries and Vegetables Wholesale Marketing schemes to benefit the fishing and agricultural population on whose economy the enemy occupation had a progressively disastrous effect, and the proposals recommended under the Development and Welfare Act seek to extend, and to amplify beyond the means of the Colony's present finances, the existing projects for the

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