貝璐

繁體中文

貝璐（William Peel，1875–1945）係英國殖民地官員，長年在馬來亞任公職，1930年5月出任香港總督。上任即遇上世界大蕭條，香港轉口貿易與出口工業萎縮、失業上升，政府被迫緊縮開支、放緩公共工程並檢討薪俸，他同時設法維持社會基本服務；他任內仍繼續推進水塘、道路與衞生設施，並處理九龍城寨、新界土地及鄉政等長期問題，任內亦完成多項供水與市政工程。1930年代初香港逐步由轉口港向本地工業轉型，登記工廠與工人數目穩步上升，他亦見證本地工業在出口市場站穩陣腳嘅起步階段。1935年他離任返英退休，1945年逝世。山頂貝璐道以他命名。

English

Sir William Peel (1875–1945) was a British colonial official who had served long in Malaya before becoming Governor of Hong Kong in May 1930, just as the Great Depression struck. Hong Kong's re-export trade and export industries contracted, unemployment rose, and the government was forced to retrench, slow public works and review salaries; Peel nonetheless pressed on with reservoirs, roads and sanitation and handled long-standing issues such as the Kowloon Walled City and New Territories land. In the early 1930s the colony began shifting from an entrepôt towards local manufacturing, with registered factories and industrial employment rising steadily — the first stage of an industrial sector that would hold its own in export markets. He left Hong Kong in 1935 and retired to Britain, dying in 1945; Peel Rise on the Peak is named after him.