Re-establishing the Presence

Hong Kong was a shambles at the end of the war. To avoid the problems of trying to feed the population the Japanese had driven almost a million people back to China, and those remaining had suffered incredible hardship. The city and its harbour had been fought over, looted, left to rot and then bombed by the US Air Force.

But the people poured back in, and the rate at which the territory recovered was little short of astounding. As they had shown so many times before - and since - Hong Kong people take a lot of putting down. By March 1946 Lieutenant Bryan Samain, a newly-arrived officer of 45 Royal Marines Commando (part of the Third Commando Brigade, which took over the `policing' of Hong Kong until the regular Police Force had sorted itself out), was able to record:

"Today I `went ashore' and had a look round some of the local shops. I also went by ferry over to Hong Kong Island - tier upon tier of blazing, coloured lights, half-way up the mountainside, by night. The shops themselves have goods in plenty which are very scarce in Britain, especially watches, silks and no-coupon clothes."

"One of the colony's major medical problems is venereal disease. The VD rate here is appalling... Hong Kong is swarming with Chinese and Eurasian prostitutes; it is said that 98% of them are infected. As a warning to the British troops here, Kowloon's main streets carry large photos depicting advanced cases of tertiary syphilis. Even so, a considerable number of servicemen have contracted VD since the colony was re-occupied."