SECOND TO LONDON

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 77, 1 April 1940, Page 6

SECOND TO LONDON

TEEMING HONGKONG.

WAR EMPTIED CITIES.

SOME STRIKING REVERSALS. (Special.—By Air Mail.) HONGKONG, May 7. Thanks immediately to the war in China and indirectly to the European conflict, Hongkong has become the second largest city in the British Empire. taking second place only to London. Hongkong , e population is now 1,r>00.000, fully half of London's wartime number of inhabitant*, and one million and a quarter more than Auckland's population. It also compares with the total population of New Zealand, which ie a.bout 1,050.000. Wars in Europe and Asia, in fact, have had a remarkable effect on the poulations of the world'e biggest cities. To-day Xew York is indusputably the biggest city in the world. London, which had a pre-war population of over 7.000,000, now contains but 3,000,000. The reet have evacuated. Shanghai's Huge Increase. Shanghai, which had a pre-war population of 1,500,000, now holde 4,500,000 people—mostly refugees, and as a result temporarily becomes the third largeet city in the world, being exceeded only by Xew York (0,930,00) and Tokyo (0.000,000).

The population of London now falls below those of New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Moscow, Chicago and Osaka.

Berlin, which wae once the fourth largest city in the world, is temporarily the twelfth largest. It now has fewer people than residents in Chungking, which before the Sino-Japaneee war held only 400,000.

Amazing things have happened to populations in occupied China. Big cities which have vied with those of cities in any part of the world have now become mere villages in respect of population.

Peipinjr has lesw than half a million inhabitant*. Before the war it contained 1.560,000. Xanfcing probably holds not more than 20.000 to-day. Before the war its population exceeded 1,000,000. Canton has been reduced from 1.250,000 to an estimated 30.000; Hankow from an estimated 1,000,000 to 20,000. Second Empire City. Hongkong, too, has been affected by the war in China. Without taking into consideration the people who live in the Xew Territories (part of the mainland leased by England from China), the colony can claim the biggest |>opulation of any city in the British Empire, excepting London. Prior to the Far East hostilities, Hongkong wae the ninth largest city in the Empire. Previously Calcutta (1,330,000) held the distinction now enjoyed by Hongkong. Other cities displaced *by this colony are Sydney (1,251,000), Bombay (1,161,000). Glasffow (1,124,000). Birmingham (1,020.000). Montreal (1,000,000) and Melbourne (1,000,000). Before the outbreak of the hostilities between Japan and China, Hongkong's total population was 850,000. It passed the million mark three years before the occasion was anticipated in official forecaste.