ENG-1972 — Page 19

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REVIEW

objective of raising social benefits and standards of living for all and of making Hong Kong a better place in which to live'.

The new Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose spelt out such aspirations in his first major speech in the Legislative Council in October, in which he outlined bold measures towards his declared goal of prosperity with social progress. The speech was described by the local press as a 'blueprint for the 70s' and a 'new deal'. Its underlying theme was a respect for human dignity.

Dignity was something there was little room for 20 years ago. Here was a small territory which before the Pacific War held perhaps 1.5 million people and whose whole reason for existence for 100 years had been the China trade. It had little in- digenous manufacturing activity of its own. Then, during the Korean war, when the United Nations embargoed trade with China, that entrepôt role collapsed overnight.

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Meanwhile immigrants from China swelled the population alarmingly and for most there were no homes, no jobs, few public services: nothing seemed to augur well for the future.

Since then remarkable changes have taken place. The population has risen to four million, yet there is full employment. Industrial production has grown at such a pace that Hong Kong is perhaps the biggest exporter of manufactured goods of all the developing countries in the world.

Where, 20 years ago, thousands of people were sleeping in the streets glad of any job which would provide them with enough to live on, many of these same people now regard a television set as a necessity of life. They have a roof over their heads, dress and eat much better, and have a bit of money left over to enjoy the new found possibilities of leisure time. Some even have a little left over to bank, or invest in the stock market.

In those 20 years, the national income and government expenditure have in- creased 12 times, domestic exports of locally manufactured goods have grown 18 times, the labour force seven times, bank deposits 23 times and currency in circula- tion by just over four times. Wages, in real terms, are worth three times as much.

Physical development, too, has been striking. High-rise buildings have changed the sky-line, there has been large scale reclamation of land from the sea. Motor transport has risen dramatically, giving Hong Kong a traffic density of nearly 300 vehicles per mile of road-certainly many times the density in Europe or the United States. To cope with this situation, a complex of flyovers and highways has been built. A major project in this field has been the recent opening of a $320 million cross-harbour tunnel which now links the Island and Kowloon.

Still more lies ahead. The government has decided in principle to build a mass transit underground railway system, estimated at $6,000 million at mid-1970 prices. The nine-stage system would take many years to build, but the first two stages could be completed within four-and-a-half years from the time work begins. The line would start at Choi Hung, in Kowloon, linking several resettlement estates with the Nathan