ENG-1949 — Page 10

managed to remain a relative oasis of peace and prosperity in the Far East. The main effect has been to bring to the Colony a vast number of Chinese seeking refuge from war and disturbance. A time of change is a time of potential danger and, as an insurance against such danger, His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom decided early in the year to augment the reduced garrison of the Colony. considerably. On July 2nd Lt. General F. W. Festing, C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O. arrived to assume the post of General Officer Commanding-in-Chief. On his departure owing to illness he was succeeded on October 20th by Lt. General Sir E. C. Robert Mansergh, K.B.E., C.B., M.C.

The influx of Chinese into Hong Kong, which still;

as it has caused continues, is a matter of some concern serious over-crowding. Large squatter settlements have mushroomed all over the Colony. The flimsy and insanitary structures in which they dwell constitute a serious menace to health and a grave risk of fire. Several squatter colonies At the time were in fact destroyed by fire during the year. of the fall of Shanghai in May and later in October when the Communist capture of Canton was imminent the number of Chinese flocking into the Colony reached at times over 10,000 in one week. These have been absorbed, but with increasing difficulty. It is doubtful whether many more can be received without imposing an intolerable strain on the Colony's water supply and accommodation facilities.

The civil war has also dislocated normal trade and At the end communications between Hong Kong and China. of May the Nationalists began a blockade (described as a "closure of ports") which effectively closed Shanghai to shipping, except for a small number of blockade runners which have broken through. This had its effect on commer- cial relations between Hong Kong and Central China, although later in the year cargoes destined for Shanghai began to find their way through via Tientsin and other become northern ports to which shipping has again

normal.

After the fall of Canton through railway services on the Kowloon/Canton railway were suspended. They have not yet been resumed, despite the readiness of the authorities. of the British Section to agree to through services to Canton.

were

As an inevitable concomitant of civil war, numbers of political refugees have sought and been accorded refuge in Hồng Kong. Whereas previously many of these persons out of sympathy with the Kuomintang Nationalist Government, present political refugees in Hong Kong now With the popula- comprise mainly Kuomintang personages. tion of Hong Kong consisting as it does predominantly of persons of Chinese origin it is inevitable that some of their political quarrels have been fought out again in the Colony.

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