Looking back
25 years ago THE leader of the Heung Yee Kuk delegation to Britain, said in Manchester that he would try, in their forthcoming talks with the British Government, to obtain freer entry into the UK of Chinese immigrants. He said only 160 labour permits were issued to Hongkong people last year and that the restaurant business was flourishing and that there was a shortage of labour which had to be Chinese.
THE Education Department has introduced an assessment system which will give a more accurate and realistic picture of a child's suitability for secondary education than through the existing Secondary Schools Entrance Examination. The system, which has been evolved after intensive research, has now been adopted in all Government primary schools, and by 1971 it is hoped to spread to the majority of non-Government schools in Hongkong.
A GOVERNMENT spokesman said yesterday that the three-day Chinese New Year holiday would be observed every year in future. Hongkong had a three-day holiday this year. Formerly, the holiday was officially limited to two days. The Secretary for Chinese Affairs said the new arrangements conformed more closely with actual practice in Hongkong society and with popular sentiment rather than the old arrangements.
THE three policemen who were freed on a manslaughter charge on Chinese New Year's Eve have been reinstated in the police force, a Government spokesman said yesterday. They were automatically reinstated as soon as they won the appeal, he added. The policemen were charged with the murder of Li On, a Shaw Brothers Studio employee in the cells of North Kowloon court in June last year, but were convicted of manslaughter.
A COMBINED search operation by the police and firemen was still going on late last night for the occupants of a private car which fell about 40ft off 151/2 milestone, Castle Peak Road, New Territories yesterday. The car was going towards Kowloon when it skidded and ran off the road. On arrival, the police and firemen could not find any people inside the vehicle and feared the occupants might have been thrown into the sea.
45 years ago THERE are growing manifestations that Hongkong is leaning over backwards to help others at her own expense, and it will do no harm to inquire when something in the way of reciprocity is likely to be forthcoming. A fortnight ago Government announced new import restrictions, ostensibly designed to assist British products, yet intriguingly including wood oil, which is not a sterling area commodity. It can only be supposed that this constitutes another concession to China.
REACTIONS among government personnel to the Salaries Commission's recommendations are bound to vary from satisfaction to qualified disappointment, but in the main they appear to go more than half way in resolving the economic problem which has beset the majority of civil servants since the re-occupation.
HONGKONG beat the Mainland in a New Year's Day exhibition football match on the Club ground by four goals to three. The Islanders deserved to win what turned out to be an interesting and enjoyable match.
75 years ago IN the Mixed Court at Shanghai, Waung Tsung-kaung was sentenced to one month's imprisonment for breaking a tomb in Nanztang and stealing several articles of jewellery from the coffin.
A SHANGHAI youth took a warming pan to bed and it set fire to the bed and the house. A sick man was burned to death and the youth also suffered severe burns. Ten houses were gutted as a result. The fatality was not discovered until after the fire was extinguished.
