Public Relations
Officer
DICU
"Agang Kone"
Price: $1.50
DROIC
Hong Kong
HONG KONG
ANNUAL DEPARTMENTAL REPORT
BY THE
PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER
FOR THE
FINANCIAL YEAR 1954-55
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY W. F. C. JENNER. GOVERNMENT PRINTER,
AT THE GOVERNMENT PRESS,
JAVA ROAD, HONG KONG.
PART I- GENERAL
Policy
Staff
Premises
CONTENTS
Paragraphs
Relations with the Public
Booklet about Hong Kong
PART II - PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE
Press Section
Services to the Press
Relations with Government Depart-
ments
Press Conferences
Facility Visits
Radio News
Newspapers
1 2
3 - 4
5
6
7- 8
9
10 - 20
21 - 22
23
24 - 27
28 - 31
32 - 37
38
-
47
48 - 50
L
Advertising, Display & Films Section
Film Censorship
Policy:
PART I - GENERAL
At the beginning of the year a major policy change occurred in the separation of the Broadcasting Department from the Public Relations Department. This office, however, continues to supply the English and Chinese News Bulletins.
2. Towards the end of the year a new scale of fees for film censorship, which had the effect of simplifying accounting, was introduced. The general effect of the new rates was to increase the fees slightly, but in view of the fact that these fees had remained unchanged since 1946 the increase was considered reasonable and necessary in view of the rising costs of censorship.
Staff:
3. In March 1955, Mr. J. W. Ferris, Executive Officer Class I, transferred to Secretary, Urban Council. His place was taken by Mr. T. V. C. Reynolds, Executive Officer Class II.
4. The replacement of all General Clerical Service clerks engaged on press translation work continued and at the end of the year only translators were employed on this work.
Premises:
5. The Censorship Theatre was completed during the year and was opened for use on 1st June, 1954. The theatre is equipped with two 35mm. projectors and one 16mm. projector.
Relations with the Public:
6. Increasing use of the facilities of this office are being made by the various other Government departments to explain policies, etc., to the public. Numerous inquiries from visitors and travel agencies overseas were dealt with, and many of the visitors on their arrival continued to make use of this Depart- ment for information.
1
Booklet about Hong Kong:
7. The popularity of the Hong Kong Booklet exceeded all estimates and the first edition of 100,000 was soon sold out. The continued demands for more copies of the booklet resulted in a second edition being ordered. Of this second 100,000, nearly half have already been 'spoken' for and delivery is expected in July or August, 1955.
8. The second edition of the booklet is virtually the same as the first, though the opportunity has been taken of making a few alterations.
9.
PART II - PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE
Press Section
Despite increased demands for information and press releases, this section has carried on without any increase of staff.
Services to the Press:
10. The general output of the Press Section showed an all-round improvement over the previous year and more use is being made by the local press of the material prepared and distributed by the Section.
11. The most important daily function of the Press Section continued to be the preparation of the Daily Information Bulletin, which contains news of Government affairs, official statements, views, etc.
12. The preparation of daily news bulletins three times a day for broadcast by Radio Hong Kong was continued. An almost round-the-clock service was maintained throughout the year, with Duty Officers, both English and Chinese-speaking, manning the Section every night from 10 p.m. onwards.
2
13. The output of London Press Service material was satisfactory and reasonable acceptance results were obtained. The special regional service for the Far East, known as "Feastco", continued to be popular while another specialized C.O.I. service, "Colco", dealing with Commonwealth and Colonial affairs, also maintained its popularity.
14. The London Press Service is also supplemented with a feature service of articles written by journalists and writers of repute. During the year, 37 feature articles were distributed, with 34 used, on an exclusive basis.
15. The layout of the daily Press Summary, consisting of items of interest translated into English from the vernacular press, has altered. The introduction of "headlines" now enables a reader to pick out the items of particular interest to him.
16. Although the Summary has a restricted circulation, it plays an important role by informing Departmental Heads what the local press is saying about matters within their purview. Every effort is being made to enlarge its contents and increase its usefulness.
17. Good use continues to be made of local press photo- graphs, simplified plans, sketch maps and scale drawings issued by the Section to amplify or explain text matter contained in the Daily Information Bulletin. During the year 88 photographs were distributed, resulting in 467 acceptances.
18. Close liaison was maintained by the Press Officer throughout the year with the Public Relations Officers of the three Armed Services, all of whom use the Department's dis- tribution system. Cordial working relations were also main- tained with the British Council Representative, whose material is embodied in the Daily Information Bulletin. Relations with the United States Information Service and the Representative of the Regional Information Office of the Commissioner General for the United Kingdom in South East Asia continued to be very cordial.
3
+
19. Use by the local press of all varieties of material can be summarized as follows:
No. of Items
Issued
No. of Items
Used
Total No. of Acceptances
Average Use Per Item
by Local Press
Accepted
1,533
1,232
323
DAILY INFORMATION BULLETIN
1,533
12,561
LONDON PRESS SERVICE
531
594
8.19
1.12
"FEASTCO" (LONDON FAR EAST SERVICE)
203
392
"COLCO" (LONDON COLONIAL SERVICE)
1.93
441
128
181
1.41
RADIO NEWS & PROGRAMMES
459
453
3,723
8.22
ARMED SERVICES RELEASES
157
157
968
3.57
37
P.R.O.
45
Pool
8
C.O.I.
11
C. O.I. FEATURE ARTICLES
34
40
PHOTOGRAPHS
(including plans, maps and sketch drawings)
Armed Services
64
44
201
1.18
4.57
00
8
56
7.00
11
19
1.73
55
191
3.47
4
20. Nearly all the photographs produced by the Public Relations Office were of a local topical nature while C.O.I. material-chiefly feature sets-found its way into pictorial magazines published locally.
Relations with other Government Departments:
21. Steady progress is being made to improve liaison with other Government departments. The effort has resulted in closer cooperation and an increasing awareness of the facilities which the Department have to offer in the way of sound publicity.
22. During the year more use was made of the Department for publicity campaigns. The Press Section assisted in the publicity arrangements for the Agricultural Show, the Fisheries Exhibition, the Tuberculosis Exhibition, the anti-typhoid and anti-diphtheria campaigns, exercises by the Colony's Civil Defence Organization and the annual reviews of the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force and the Hong Kong Police Force and Auxiliaries.
Press Conferences:
23. A total of 13 press conferences were held in the course of the year. Among those who gave press conferences were the Rt. Hon. C. R. Attlee; Mr. W. H. Chinn, the Secretary of State's Adviser on Social Welfare; the Director of Public Works, the Hon. T. L. Bowring, who spoke about the Colony's water storage position; the British Naval Authorities in connexion with the return of the crew of the yacht Elinor; the Chief Officer, Fire Brigade, Mr. W. J. Gorman, on fire prevention in squatter areas; Dr. E. Hambro, leader of a United Nations refugee survey mission, who dealt with the local refugee problem; and Mr. W. Dyer of the Education Department on the subject of school textbooks.
Facility Visits:
24. These visits continue to be popular with the local press as they give both reporters and photographers a first-hand opportunity of seeing Government functions and operations about which there is public interest.
5
25. During the year 21 facility visits were arranged, most of them to outlying areas and requiring the provision of official transport, either by road or sea.
26. The outstanding one of this nature took place in September, 1954, in connexion with the visit of Mr. Attlee and party following their tour of the Chinese People's Republic. Over 100 press representatives, including foreign press correspondents and television units, travelled by special train to the border town of Lo Wu to cover the arrival of the Socialist visitors.
27. Other popular tours included a visit to the Hong Kong Regiment in camp at San Tin, a tour of the Colony's big reservoir project at Tai Lam Chung, a visit to the Agricultural Show at Yuen Long, a visit to the market town of Shek Wu Hui, in the New Territories following its destruction by fire and tours of resettlement housing estates in various parts of the Colony.
Radio News:
28. The installation of a teleprinter connecting the Press Section with the Hong Kong Office of Reuters Limited has resulted in increased efficiency in the preparation of radio news bulletins for broadcast by Radio Hong Kong.
29. Overseas news of import is in the hands of the Duty Officers within minutes of their reception in Hong Kong. Important news is channelled by direct telephone line to the Duty Announcer at Radio Hong Kong, thus permitting the broadcast of up-to-the-minute news.
30. The Press Section continued to receive inquiries from the public in connexion with particular news items, such as latest cricket Test match scores and Home football results.
31. Progress was steadily maintained throughout the year on improving the quality of the radio news bulletins. Careful editing of foreign news continued to be the primary duty of the Assistant Press Officer on the night shift.
6
Newspapers:
32. There were no major changes in the Colony's newspaper world during the period under review. At the end of March 1955 there was a total of 138 newspapers and 15 news agencies on the register.
33. There has been one casualty among the smaller and less important Chinese daily newspapers-the Fu Sing Pao ceased publication after repeated attempts at reorganization. New publications include two dailies, the Sin Sang Yat Po (Gentle- men's Daily) and the Lo Kung Chau Po (Labour Weekly News), which deals with labour affairs.
34. Two new pictorial magazines made their debut-the Young Companion and the Popular Pictorial, both published monthly.
35. The four large international news agencies-Associated Press of America, United Press, Reuters and Agence France Presse-maintain permanent correspondents to whom the Department renders assistance whenever requested.
36. Other agencies with offices in the Colony are the Pan- Asia Newspaper Alliance, the New China News Agency, the official news organ of the Central People's Government of China and the Central News Agency of the Chinese Nationalist authorities.
37. The Near and Far East News (Asia) Limited, in- corporated in the United Kingdom, has a representative in Hong Kong to whom the facilities offered by the Press Section are always available.
Advertising, Display, Distribution
& Films Section
38. The increasing demands made on this Department by other Government departments has resulted in this section being kept very busy during the year. Requests for material have increased and work on a minor scale is being undertaken for other territories.
7
Government Advertising:
39. The total cost of advertisements rose to $143,280.30 during the year, the total number of advertisements being 554. The approximate cost of $259 per advertisement is slightly below that of last year.
40. The comparative figures are:
Year
1952/53
1953/54
1954/55
Total No.
Cost per advertisement
494
$224
491
$278
554
$259
Visual Display and Distribution:
41. Several new posters were produced during the year. 5,000 coloured anti-diphtheria posters and 5,000 sets of anti- cholera posters (5 in a set) were produced for the Medical Department, in addition to 5,000 notices re anti-typhoid inocula- tions.
42. C.O.I. continued to supply a large quantity of posters, picture sets, booklets etc., also material for the Reference Library.
43. Overprinting of picture-posters supplied by C.O.I., in Chinese for schools, continued during the year, 11 sets of the large photo-posters supplied were overprinted, 4 sets of posters were also overprinted for Sarawak and North Borneo.
44. The Section continued to produce plans and drawings for the Press Section.
Films:
45. 2,584 films were loaned out during the year and shown to audiences totalling 668,414 all over the Colony. This figure is not as high as 1953/54, (746,000) but considering that special shows were put on during the Coronation Celebrations in 1953, the figures for 1954/55 show the increasing popularity of the C.O.I. films.
8
46. The new 'Soundstripe' magnetic recording projector was received and the opportunity was taken of having the Coronation film made by the Hong Kong Amateur Cine Club sound-striped in London and commentaries in English or Chinese can be made as and when required.
47. This department continued to be responsible for the selection of the photographs for the Hong Kong Annual Report.
Film Censorship Section
48. Film Censorship continues to be administered by the Public Relations Officer in his capacity as Secretary to both the Film Censoring Panel and the Films Appeal Board. There has been no change in the composition of the panel of censors.
49. Appendices A and B on pages 10 and 11 give a summary of films censored.
50. The event of the year under review was the completion of the Censorship Theatre in the Gloucester Building which was opened for use on June 1st, 1954. Cinemascope films still have to be censored in a theatre so equipped. This is unsatisfactory as it is impossible to guarantee security. In view of the con- tinually increasing number of these films it appears that it will ultimately become necessary to provide this facility in our own theatre.
9
J. L. MURRAY, Public Relations Officer.
Appendix A
10
FEATURE FILMS (35 MM)
Country of Origin
Number Passed Passed Censored Clean with cuts
Banned
APPEAL BOARD
Films Ban Appeal Submitted Confirmed Upheld
Passed
with cuts
CHINA (Mainland)
FRANCE
11
2
1
8
29
18
7
4
3
1
HONG KONG:
(Chinese--Cantonese)
112
95
16
(Chinese-Mandarin)
55
42
12
12
1
1
1
1
1
1
INDIA
31
30
1
ITALY
10
8
1
1
1
1
| i ||
JAPAN
10
9
1
I
I
PHILIPPINES...
2
1
1
1
1
SWEDEN
1
1
UNITED KINGDOM
36
35
1
1
1
U. S. A.
286*
242
25
19
17
11
2
U. S. S. R.
21
9
1
11
YUGOSLAVIA
1
1
Including 38 in Cinemascope.
Appendix B
11
NEWSREELS, SHORTS ETC. (35 MM)
Country of Origin
Number Passed Passed Censored Clean with cuts
Banned
NEWSREELS
APPEAL BOARD
Films Ban Appeal Passed Submitted Confirmed Upheld with cuts
CHINA (Mainland)
8
1
7
UNITED KINGDOM
85
85
U. S. A.
220
218
2
U. S. S. R.
4
1
SHORTS, ETC.
CHINA (Mainland).
2
2
UNITED KINGDOM .............
9
9
U. S. A.
234
234
U. S. S. R.
1
3
In addition, 8 U. S. A. 16mm. films have been censored, 1 banned, the remainder passed clean.
·
HONG KONG
ANNUAL DEPARTMENTAL REPORT
BY THE
PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER
FOR THE
FINANCIAL YEAR 1955 - 56
13
PART I- GENERAL
Policy
Staff
CONTENTS
Relations with the Public
Paragraphs
1
2 - 7
8
00
Visit of the Secretary of State .....
9
15
Major News Events
Contempt of Court Actions
Legislation
16 - 20
21 - 24
25
PART II - PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE
Press Section
Services to the Press
Press Conferences
26
27 - 38
39
Facility Visits
Colony's Newspapers
Advertising, Display, Distribution and
Films Section
Film Censorship
40 41
42
-
44
45 - 53
54 - 56
15
Policy:
PART I - GENERAL
The year under review was one of steady progress rather than of spectacular achievement in all sections of the Department, although the Press Section had a particularly busy time as a depleted staff had to cope with a formidable sequence of major events of world wide interest. As a consequence, the Public Relations Officer himself had to give more of his time to the press side of Public Relations activities and less time than he would normally have given to formulating policy.
Staff:
2. Mr. S. S. Knowles, Press Officer, went on leave to the United Kingdom from April 27th, 1955 to January 11th, 1956. During his absence, Mr. D. N. Willis, Assistant Press Officer, acted as Press Officer.
3. Mr. Knowles was selected by the Colonial Office to act as escorting officer to a group of five Asian journalists (including one Chinese editor from Hong Kong) who toured the United Kingdom for a month at the invitation of the British Government, seeing different aspects of British life.
4. Mrs. E. N. Davis, Assistant Public Relations Officer, who left the Colony on no pay leave on July 21st, 1955, resumed duty on February 8th, 1956.
5. Mrs. L. M. Pennell, Film Censor went on no pay leave on June 27th, 1955 and resumed duty on November 30th, 1955.
6. Mr. T. V. C. Reynolds, Executive Officer, was trans- ferred to the Colonial Secretariat on November 21st, 1955, and replaced by Mr. R. J. Oliphant.
7. Two members of the General Clerical Service were regraded as Calligraphists on April 1st.
17
Relations with the Public:
8.
Increasing use of the facilities of the Department con- tinues to be made by the various other Government departments to explain policies, etc. to the public. Numerous inquiries by visitors and overseas travel agencies were dealt with, and many of such visitors on their arrival in the Colony continued to make use of the Department for information and guidance.
Visit of the Secretary of State:
9. Perhaps the outstanding event of the year for the Public Relations Office and its functions was the visit to the Colony in July of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Rt. Hon. Alan Lennox-Boyd and Lady Patricia Lennox-Boyd.
10. Mr. Lennox-Boyd arrived in the Colony on July 25th and left on July 31st, to continue his tour of British territories in the Far East.
11. During his stay in Hong Kong, Mr. Lennox-Boyd visited a number of factories and hospitals, the University and the leper colony at Hay Ling Chau.
12. He also received representatives of six local organiza- tions and met leading members of the Chinese community in the Colony.
13. On his departure, Mr. Lennox-Boyd made the welcome announcement that Her Majesty the Queen had been pleased to extend the term of office of His Excellency the Governor for another two years. This news was greeted with enthusiasm by all sections of the Hong Kong press.
14. Arrangements were made by the Public Relations Office for the widest possible press, photographic and radio coverage, to ensure maximum publicity for the visit both in the Colony and overseas. The Colony's press was organized on a "pool" basis for most of the week's activities.
15. Before the Secretary of State left the Colony he gave a well attended press conference.
18
Major News Events:
16. Among other more important events with which the Public Relations Office was concerned were:-
17. The sabotage of the Air India International airliner "Kashmir Princess", which crashed into the sea off North Borneo on April 11th whilst on a flight from Hong Kong to Djakarta.
18. The discovery of an ancient Chinese tomb at the Li Cheng Uk Resettlement Estate in Shamshuipo on August 9th.
19. The picnic tragedy at the Taipo Kau Forestry Reserve in the New Territories on Saturday, August 28th, when 28 persons were drowned by a sudden rush of water down the hill- side as a result of a cloud burst.
20. The release of American civilian prisoners by the Chinese authorities.
Contempt of Court Actions:
21. During the year under review, a number of contempt of court actions were instituted against local newspapers.
22. In November, 1955, proceedings were instituted against six vernacular newspapers in connexion with a murder case in Kowloon. All the defendants were found guilty and fined varying sums.
23. In March of this year, ten vernacular papers were prosecuted for contempt of court in connexion with the Ming Tak Bank robbery. Nine of the defendants were found guilty and fined.
24. The full Court held that the offence of the other defendant was less aggravated and that the proceedings them- selves should be a sufficient warning. This paper was not fined.
Legislation:
25. An Ordinance to amend the Control of Publications Consolidation Ordinance, No. 15 of 1951 was promulgated on November 10th, 1955. This Ordinance makes certain modifica- tions to the principal Ordinance.
19
PART II - PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE
Press Section
26. The Press Section staff is unchanged and consists of a Press Officer, 3 Assistant Press Officers, 6 Translators, 2 Chinese Copyists and 2 Typists.
Services to the Press:
27. The general output of the Press Section continued to be satisfactory. The most important daily function continues to be the preparation of the Daily Information Bulletin and the daily news bulletins for broadcast by Radio Hong Kong three times a day.
28. A 20 hour a day service was maintained throughout the year, with Duty Officers, both English and Chinese-speaking, manning the Press Section every night from 10 p.m. onwards.
29. At the beginning of October, as a result of discussions with the Commissioner of Police, the Section began issuing a daily Police news bulletin containing factual reports of traffic accidents, larcenies, robberies, etc. for use by local newspapers.
30. From October 7th, 1955 when the service first started, to March 31st, 1956, a total of 405 Police notifications were issued. This total does not include individual inquiries made by newspapers outside normal office hours. In this connexion, invaluable assistance was rendered by the Director of Criminal Investigation and other members of his staff.
31. The output of London Press Service material was satisfactory and reasonably good acceptance results were obtained. The special regional service for the Far East, known as "Feastco", and the specialized Central Office of Information service "Colco", dealing with Commonwealth and Colonial affairs, continued to be popular with certain sections of the local press.
20
32. The London Press Service is supplemented with a feature service written by journalists and writers of repute. The service was mainly supplied to the local press on an "exclusive" publication basis. During the year, 334 feature articles were distributed, with 171 used.
33. Every effort was made to improve the quality and quantity of the contents of the daily Press Summary, which contains items of particular interest to Government departments translated into English from the vernacular press.
34. Good use was also made of local press photographs, simplified plans, sketch maps and scale drawings issued by the Section to amplify or explain text matter carried in the Daily Information Bulletin. During the year a total of 150 photo- graphs was distributed, with 508 acceptances.
35. Close liaison was maintained with the Press Relations Officers of the three Armed Services. Cordial relations were also maintained with the British Council Representative, whose press material is embodied in the Daily Information Bulletin.
36. Use by the local press of all types of press material is summarized below:
No. of Items
Issued
No. of Items
Used
1,720
1,172
173
427
Total No. of Acceptances
Average Use
Per Item Accepted
By Local Newspapers
DAILY INFORMATION BULLETIN
1,720
13,769
LONDON PRESS SERVICE
516
553
8.00
1.07
"FEASTCO" (LONDON FAR EAST SERVICE)
115
150
"COLCO" (LONDON COLONIAL SERVICE)
139
186
21
1.30
1.34
No. of Items
Issued
No. of Items
Used
Total No. of Acceptances
By Local Newspapers
RADIO NEWS & PROGRAMMES
469
220
334
469
3,707
ARMED SERVICES RELEASES
219
1,373
C. O. I. FEATURE ARTICLES
171
171
Average Use Per Item
Accepted
PHOTOGRAPHS
(including plans, maps and sketch drawings)
7.90
6.27
1.00
P.R.O.
150
125
508
4.06
C.0.1.
60
18
36
2.00
Armed Services
73
71
214
3.01
37. Nearly all the photographs produced by the Public Relations Office were of a local topical nature while C.O.I. and B.B.C. material was supplied to pictorial magazines and half a dozen local newspapers which regularly use photographic illustrations.
38. Although no records exist of the use of Daily Informa- tion Bulletin items and P.R.O). and Armed Services photographs by foreign correspondents and news agencies in the Colony or by British official agencies overseas, it is known that usage is considerable.
Press Conferences:
39. A total of 15 press conferences were held in the course of the year. Among those who gave press conferences were in chronological order the Rt. Hon. Alan Lennox-Boyd, Secretary
22
of State for the Colonies; a representative of the Hong Kong Housing Authority on local housing projects; the Burmese Prime Minister, U. Nu; Dr. F. J. Harlow, Adviser on Technical Education to the Colonial Office; the Director of Public Works, the Hon. T. L. Bowring, in connexion with the Kai Tak airport development project; and Vice Admiral R. F. Elkins, Flag Officer, Second in Command, Far East Station, who explained the role of British aircraft carriers in connexion with Exercise "Sea Dragon".
Facility Visits:
40. Facility visits have always been popular with the local press as they give both reporters and photographers an insight into the operations and functions of various Government departments about which at the time there is special public interest.
41. During the year 14 facility visits were arranged, most of them to outlying areas requiring the provision of official transport, either by road or by sea. This total does not include the visits and inspection tours by the Secretary of State for the Colonies for which "pool" arrangements were made.
Colony's Newspapers:
42. There were no major changes in the Colony's news- papers during the period under review. At the end of March, 1956 there was a total of 168 newspapers and 18 news agencies registered with the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs.
43. A few of the smaller Chinese daily newspapers ceased publication during the year under review. Two English- language magazines, "Outlook" and "Milady" also suspended publication. New ventures included two Chinese dailies, the Daily Market News and the Morning News.
44. New pictorial magazines making their debut were the Happiness Pictorial and the Union Pictorial, both published monthly.
23
Advertising, Display, Distribution
& Films Section
45. Demands made on this Department by other Govern- ment departments resulted in this section being kept very busy during the year. Requests for material increased considerably and work on a minor scale such as advertising, overprinting etc. was undertaken for other British territories in the Far East.
Government Advertising:
46. The total cost of Government advertisements was $131,434.90 and the number of advertisements 490. The average cost per advertisement was approximately $268.
Visual Display and Distribution:
47. Several posters were produced during the year. 62,000 colour posters of various sizes and 1,000 stickers on water saving were produced for the Water Authority; 9,000 colour posters in three different designs on Hill Fire Prevention for the Forestry Department; 1,000 colour posters publicizing the Agricultural Show for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and 1,000 posters publicizing the Annual Police Parade for the Police Department.
48. The Central Office of Information continued to supply a large quantity of posters, picture sets, booklets, etc., also material for the Reference Library. Most of this publicity material was made available to Government Departments, schools and various organizations.
49. Eight photo-posters supplied by the Central Office of Information were overprinted in Chinese for schools during the year. The same number of photo-posters were overprinted for the Governments of Sarawak and North Borneo.
50. Various plans and diagrams were produced for the Press Section.
24
Films:
51. During the year 2,887 films were borrowed from the library and shown to audiences totalling 775,469. This figure shows an increase of 107,055, which well demonstrates the popularity of these C.O.I. films.
52. Every possible assistance has been given to visiting film teams wanting to make documentaries about the Colony and also to journalists wishing to take still photographs to illustrate their writings.
53. The section continued to be responsible for the selection of the photographs for the Hong Kong Annual Report.
Film Censorship Section
54. Film Censorship continues to be administered by the Public Relations Officer in his capacity as Secretary to both the Film Censoring Panel and the Films Appeal Board. There has been no change in the composition of the panel of censors.
55. Appendix A on page 26 gives a summary of films censored.
56. The theatre in the Gloucester Building has continued to function satisfactorily and financial approval has now been given to fit Cinemascope. It is expected that this will be installed by the end of June, 1956. This will enable all wide screen productions-with the exception of 20th Century Fox films-to be viewed in the theatre.
S. S. KNOWLES, Acting Public Relations Officer.
25
Appendix A
26
FILMS CENSORED DURING THE PERIOD 1.4.55 TO 31.3.56
Country of Origin
Number Passed Censored Clean
Passed with cuts
Banned
APPEAL BOARD
Films
Ban Appeal Submitted Confirmed. Upheld
Passed with cuts
FEATURE FILMS
CHINA (Mainland)
14
4
FRANCE
25
17
10
2
GERMANY
3
3
HOLLAND
1
1
HONG KONG (Chinese-Cantonese)
189
161
27
1
(Chinese Mandarin)
46
38
7
INDIA
39
38
JAPAN
5
5
POLAND
1
1
UNITED KINGDOM
45
44
1
U. S. A.
246*
220
12
14
U. S. S. R.
22
6
f
17
| 7 | | ~~ | | 179-
1
10
6
3
1
1
NEWSREELS
UNITED KINGDOM
99
97
U. S. A......
202
198
2→
2
4
! │
| |
| |
SHORTS
ARGENTINE
1
CHINA (Mainland)
31
10
21
3
3
FRANCE
4
4
UNITED KINGDOM
6
6
U. S. A.
188†
188
U. S. S. R.
4
2
2
In addition 68 advertising films were censored during period under review,
* Including 74 in Cinemascope.
† Including 28 in Cinemascope.
1
ឧត
KONG