Arthur Grenfell Clarke

He was the first of three successive financial secretaries whose support for free market economic policies helped turn postwar Hong Kong into a thriving economy.

Nevertheless, like most of his predecessors and successors, his principles were that the government should exercise minimal intervention in the practical economic activity of the territory.

[citation needed] He held the post of Financial Secretary during the 1953 Shek Kip Mei Fire, which led to the government's rapid introduction of a public housing programme: within three years some 200,000 people were so accommodated.

Nevertheless, taxes were not raised, with the standard rate kept at 12.5 percent throughout his tenure, yet the government's finances were consistently in surplus as a result of Hong Kong's growing economy.

[9] In his final budget speech, on 1 March 1961, Clarke offered advice that highlights the success of post-war Hong Kong: He died in Foxrock, Dublin in 1993.