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highest educational standards, English no less than Chinese. Schools for girls have prepared women for the greater part they have taken in community life.

It was in 1908 that H. N. Mody, later Sir Hormusjee Mody, offered to present the Colony with the entire cost of the main buildings of an University. Other enthusiastic supporters followed, many Chinese contributing substantial sums to promote the under- taking, notably Sir Robert Ho Tung whose munificent donations over a long period of years place the Colony very much in his debt. China's urgent need has been for physicians, and the University of Hong Kong has been in a position to contribute substantially to fill that need. In the preparation of nurses, also, Hong Kong has done a great deal, while the hospitals of the Colony have done much to promote the acceptance of Western medicine among the Chinese.

After Japan invaded China in 1937 the Colony became a refuge for many Chinese and the population grew to over one and a half millions. Until the fall of Canton at the end of 1938 valuable supplies were able to reach China through Hong Kong. With the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939 the position of the Colony became precarious, and on December 8th 1941 the blow fell. Powerful units of the Japanese Army, supported by the Japanese Air Force based on Canton, struck at the Colony. The first attempt of the Japanese to land on Hong Kong Island was repulsed on the night of December 15th-16th, but a second attempt on the night of the 18th-19th could not be held. After some bloody fighting on the Island, the Colony was surrendered to the Japanese forces on Christmas Day. The isolated brigade on Stanley peninsula held out for a further day before capitulating on superior orders.

Hong Kong remained in Japanese hands for over three and a half years.

The population fell from more than one and a half million to a third that number.

The Colony was liberated when units of the British Pacific entered the harbour on August 30th 1945, about two weeks after the capitulation of Japan. A brief period of military administration was followed by the re-establishment of civil government on May 1st 1946.

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