Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-07-09
By EARL H. VOSS
Star Staff Writer


HONG KONG-It is much
more than bargains for tourists
and pretty girls with slit skirts
that make this British crown
colony one of the really unique
experiments of modern society.
To begin with it is mislead-
Ing to speak of Hong Kong as
British. There are only 100000
British here. The Chinese
number 81 million.
That makes Hong Kong SO
and 37I100ths per cent pure
Chinese. 80
The British colonial admins
tration provides an important
guiding hand, perhaps. but it is
the Chinese who make this re-
markable island economy tick,
They run mass production in
dustries, utilities, department
stores, handicrafts, banks
either In their own name or
some Europeans. Chinese have
high posts in the civil admins
tration as well.
The British probably could
be pushed out of here easier
than most of their. colonies.
past or present. The Chinese
wouldn't have to take over;
they already have, to a great
extent. with British blessing.
Fear of Red China
But the Hong Kong Chinese
don't want to lose their
charmed colonial status. Red
China would quickly swallow
them up if the British were to
leave. Thinking, effervescent,
free-port Hong Kong would
soon turn silent and deathly
grey. like all the other places
which the Communists mis-
manage.
There is no articulated Bit
terness here against the Brit
ish, as in India or Africa. There
is very little agitation even for
home rule. .---t.
One million Of the Chinese |
here came after l949, when the
Communists took charge on the
mainland. Somehow they have
been kept from starving: jobs
have been provided; almost
100000 have been given modest
community housing: the INTEL
igentsia which fled the Com.
munist system have been fully
integrated in prosperous cir
cumstances; and about half a
million squatters huddle in
jerry-built shacks on hillsides,
vacant lots or rooftops await
ing permanent reSettlement
housing with government aid.
An Explosive Situation
The Hong Kong administra-
ton keeps close tabs on the
suuatters. Disease is at a mini
mum. Mothers in shacks go to
the hospital to have their
babies like any other Hong
Kong mother. In short. an ex-
plosive situation is being well
managed.
Greatest hazards to the I'M
fortunate squatters are fire and
typhoonS. 1t is not uncommon
for Wretched villages Of 10000
or more to be wiped out COM
pletely in one fire.
Through it all, however, the
head of the household some
how keeps bringing enough
money home to feed the family.
Every few days another huge
resettlement apartment is COM
pleted, and a few thousand
more squatters are assigned
modest but more comfortable
quarters. These are quickly alb
sorbed in the typical Chinese
Scence-laundry hanging from
door to window, vegetables and
fish standing at the front door
ready to be cooked.
Hong Kong's economic an
swer to the sudden influx of
people was rapid development
Of industry, like textiles, cloth
ing, rubber footwear, light
metal products, electrical ap-
paratus and plastics. Shipbuild-
ing and shipbreaking are the
chief heavy industries.
Nationalist China Embarrassed
Hong Kong businessmen sim
ply threw themselves into the
world marketplace on a sink
or-swim basis. In the decade
of the 1950s they have man
aged to swim despite all the
handicaps.
"Why," asks a sly British
trader who has spent most OF
his life in the Orient, couldn't
Chang Kai-shek do these same
things on Taiwan?
It is a question which is en-
barrassing to Nationalist China
but intriguing. With a skillful
administration and an expert
enced or at least fast-learning
business community. could not
Formosa also grow more quickly
perhaps take some of the i'm
migrant pressure off Hong
Kong?
Formosa has II million peo-
pie, two million of them from
the mainland. It has made
some progress in the Is year.
the Chang government ha'
been existing there. But there
are few new industries or
Formosa not directly traceablC
To American aid
NIL