ENG-1963 — Page 290

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IMMIGRATION

followed the enactment of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act on 1st July 1962 which makes it mandatory for Commonwealth citizens to obtain work permits before arrival in Britain. Further details on emigration for employment will be found in chapter 3. Chinese residents wanting to visit Britain for other purposes than employment must have entry certificates issued by the department which totalled 1,857 in 1963. Applications for naturalization as British subjects continued to be received and an improved pro- cessing system has considerably shortened the period of waiting. The Aliens section recorded an increase in the number of aliens now resident in Hong Kong, the majority of whom are associated with the many foreign business houses established in the Colony. The larger groups consist of 2,593 United States citizens, 418 Dutch, 973 Japanese and the minority-mainly from European countries-number 1,570.

The Director of Immigration continues to act on behalf of a number of Commonwealth countries which are not represented in Hong Kong. These include, apart from colonial territories, many of the newly independent countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Tanganyika. The number of visa applications for these overseas territories increased during the year.

The Harbour section worked at full capacity. The Macau traffic created some problems because of a big increase at week-ends and public holidays, and the fact that two ferries now arrive on Saturday afternoon and three depart at the same time, leaving less than 1 hours to process the disembarkation and embarkation of an average 2,000 persons. The terminal has been redesigned inside to improve the flow of passengers and this was first tested with some success during the Macau Grand Prix, when 8,373 passengers left and 8,632 passengers returned between 15th and 18th November.

The airport is now operative for 24 hours daily and the large numbers of passengers arriving and departing clearly demonstrate that Kai Tak is in every sense an international airport. A survey of the time taken to clear passengers was made in July and re- vealed the high standard of efficiency and co-operation of the departments employed on passenger handling at the airport. As in former years the majority of tourists came from America.