ENG-1956 — Page 346

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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

general strike, plainly engineered from Canton. Sir Cecil Clementi (Governor 1925-30), by negotiation with the Canton authorities, not only settled the dispute, but laid the founda- tions of a good neighbour policy with Canton, which from then on brought considerable benefit on both sides of the frontier. At the same time, the leaders of all communities resident in Hong Kong became increasingly aware of their social responsibilities towards less privileged sections of the population. From this awareness developed the strong interest in social welfare which has become one of the most marked features of the Colony's life.

Japanese plans for political aggrandizement in the Far East became apparent when Japan presented her Twenty-One Demands to China in 1917. These were followed by intense economic expansion. In 1931 Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria, and in 1937 began a general invasion of China. As the Japanese armies pressed southwards towards Canton, which was taken in 1938, Hong Kong experienced the greatest influx of refugees it had yet seen. It is estimated that about 100,000 entered in 1937, 500,000 in 1938, and 150,000 in 1939, bringing the total population to about 1,600,000. At the height of the influx there were thought to be over half-a-million people sleeping in the streets.

In the earliest days of the Sino-Japanese War it was possible for valuable supplies to reach China through the Colony, but, after the fall of Canton, movement of such supplies was severely restricted. When war broke out in Europe, in September 1939, the position of the Colony became precarious, and on 8th December, 1941, the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbour, powerful units of the Japanese Army, supported by the Japanese Air Force based on Canton, invaded the Colony from the mainland. The first attempt to land on Hong Kong Island was repulsed on the night of 15th-16th December, but a second attempt, on the 18th-19th night, could not be held. After several days of severe fighting, in which many thousands of Commonwealth

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