Hong
Kong,
an area of 410 square miles on the south coast of China
became part of the British Empire as a
result of the Treaty of Nanking (1842). On the 1st July, 1898, Hong
Kong was leased to Britain for a period
of 99 years.
The
day after Pearl Harbor the Japanese
Army attacked the colony and although British forces provided
valiant resistance they were forced to surrender on 25th December
1941.
British forces recaptured
Hong Kong on 30th August 1945. During the Chinese
Civil War a large number of refugees entered Hong Kong and the
population of the colony increased from one to four and half million
between 1946 and 1949.
Hong Kong became an increasingly
prosperous centre for the manufacturing production of domestic and
electrical goods, international commerce and banking.
In 1984 the British government
agreed, in return for guarantees about civil and economic freedoms,
to hand back all of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
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Last updated: 16th December, 2001
(1)
George
Orwell, BBC radio broadcast (20th
December 1941)
The
Japanese successes are still very serious for us. At present the pressure
of Japanese troops has died down in Malaya, where heavy casualties
have been inflicted upon them. Large Indian reinforcements have been
landed in Rangoon. The Governor of Hong Kong states that heavy fighting
is in progress, on the island itself.
In all this we must remember
that the Japanese power, though great, can only aim at a rapid outright
victory. The three Axis powers together can produce 60 million tons
of steel every year, whereas the USA alone can produce about 88 million.
This in itself is not a striking difference.
But Japan cannot send help to Germany, and Germany cannot
send help to Japan. For the Japanese only produce 7 million tons
of steel a year. For steel, as for many other things, they must depend
on the stores they have ready.
If the Japanese seem to
be making a wild attempt, we must remember
that many of them think it their duty to their Emperor, who is
their God, to conquer the whole world. This is not a new idea in Japan.
Hideyoshi when he died in 1598 was trying to conquer the whole
world known to him, and he knew about India and Persia. It was
because he failed that Japan closed the country to all foreigners.
In January of this year,
to take a recent example, a manifesto appeared in
the Japanese press signed by Japanese Admirals and Generals stating
that it was Japan's mission to set Burma and India free. Japan was
of course to do this by conquering them. What it would be like to
be free under the
heel of Japan the Chinese can tell us, and the Koreans.
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