ABSTRACT
Hong Kong is one of the world's foremost transit ports. Shanghai is a peculiar international trading metropolis; Hong Kong is a British Crown Colony. The Japanese offered to guarantee full immunity for the railway on condition that the British undertook to stop the importation of war material through Hong Kong. During the war both nations have earned the gratitude of the Chinese by facilitating an extensive importation of war material from Hong Kong to Canton and Hankow, and from Haiphong to Yunnan and Kuangsi. Thus both have actively contributed to enable the Chinese to carry on their struggle for national independence. A marine-geographical view is now being put forward that shipping should be diverted to Port Courbet, which lies twenty-five miles from Haiphong in a north-easterly direction and fifty miles from the Chinese frontier. This entirely undeveloped harbour, which is named after one of the early colonial pioneers, Admiral Courbet, offers many natural advantages.
