HONG KONG A FORTRESS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 161, 29 September 1941, Page 6

HONG KONG A FORTRESS

FAR EAST OUTPOST

SHORE BRISTLES WITH BARBED

WIRE

Atcr serving as the centreport of South China for 100 years, Hong Kong stands to-day as Britain's most advanced outpost in the Far East, a fortress ready to give blow for blow if attacked, said a correspondent of The Times. Politically a Crown colony, economically a port of China, strategically a naval base, it has a double part to play in the life and death struggle in which the Empire is engaged; to assist the Imperial war effort by producing ships, war materials and foreign exchange, and to make itself as strong as possible in the coijimon defence of the Empire. Although a trifle slow in starting, Hong Kong has: been making up for lost time, and while it has no wish to provoke a clash, it can already promise an assailant that he will get as good as he received. Defence Measures Hong Kong's beaches like the shores of England, bristle with barbed Avire; minefields, booms and shore batteries guard the approaches to its unrivalled harbour; and heavy guns of no mean range and hitting power arc hidden in the hills. OKving to the hills, it is true, the colony is short of aerodromes, but this is offset by the new technique of larger defence areas made possible by the increasing range and mobility of the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm. The garrison has been strongly reinforced with British regulars, Indian troops, Chinese sappers and British volunteers. Hong Kong was the first part of the Empire to eonscribe its manpower, and every able-bodied Briton must cither do his share of training in the fighting force, .or, if engaged in essential service work, serve in the local Home Guard.; Many young Chinese have joined the volunteers as machine-gunners, and Americans as well as Allied subjects are giving their services in the defence of the colony. Special war legislation gives the authorities in Hong Kong the same wide powers as the Government in Britain, over persons and property for the purposes of defence. The censors!]ip of letters in half the languages of the world is an important part of economic warfare.