0003230
G.F. 323
CONFIDENTIAL
children. At about two in the afternoon, seeing that most of the huts had been pulled down, the personnel of the British authorities in Hong Kong left the scene.
The majority of the huts in this section were used for business purposes, selling sundry goods, cooked food and daily necessities. The shopkeepers, however, are not at all prosperous. Whole families had to help run the shops in order to keep body and soul together. Now, the demolition of their huts has stripped them of their only means of living and placed them in a helpless position.
There
The fate of one family is even worse. are ten in the family all of whom depend on the householder who formerly worked as an earth coolie. After the decline of the construction industry, he was compelled to run a store in his hut. The meagre profit derived from the business was used to help meet the family budget. Now that their shop and home is ruined, there is no way for the householder to earn a living or to feed his children, the youngest of whom is only twenty days old.
There is another store operated by a Mr. WONG under the signboard "WONG Choi Kee". The store was the only source of income for the WONG family which comprises 7 members. Yesterday, when the personnel of the Squatter Control Section came to dismantle their hut, WONG's wife who was furious with anger remained in the hut with her children and refused to go out of it. But the British authorities in Hong Kong dragged them out by force. Several Hong Kong British policemen rushed into the hut to help the personnel of the Squatter Control Section to forcibly drag out a child of four or five. Then crow bars and steel saws were employed to pull down the hut in the way a tree is felled framework was sawed before the whole structure was pulled down. Watching the demolition of his house, the householder could not but swallow his tears and ask the British authorities in Hong Kong to assume responsibility for his and his family's future maintenance.
-
the
Last night, the shack-dwellers who were made homeless by the British authorities in Hong Kong had to put up temporary shelters on the hill top.
CONFIDENTIAL