Registry No. HKK 18/9
DRAFT
MINUTE
SEC
ÍTY CLASSIFICATION
To:-
Mr Laird
Top-Seeryt.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
Sir L Monson
Type 1 +
From J A Glewley
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
Hong Kong
(145181) Dd. 737490 750M 1/71 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
A
ہے
B
In Confidence
HOUSING
J
HONG KONG
1.
2.
Sir H. Norman-Walker's letter refers.
in the House of Lords
Arising from a speech made (in January 1971, I
believe) about Hong Kong, Lord Garner received a lengthy
but unsigned letter from the Worker-Student Political
Action Committee, Hong Kong. It was copied to
Baroness Summerskill and the Press (Times, Observer and
Guardian) and, to summarise as briefly as possible,
contained the following points.
3.
In referring to the "enormous shortcomings of
accommodation provided by Government" it describes
"excessive overcrowding" whereby adults have about ths
and children about th of the "minimum habitable area"
per person considered acceptable by the World Health
Organisation. This overcrowding was resulted in a
high incidence of violence, a painful lack of privacy,
inadequate recreational facilities, poor educational
standards (because high noise level precluded
concentrated study) and bribery and corruption to obtain
larger properties (because legitimate methods produced
no results). The letter was highly critical of the
actual accommodation (lavatories, kitchens etc)
provided;
the fact that housing shortages were not as
much the fault of refugees as claimed by the authorities
(refugees had been "more of a benefit to the Colony than
the use of English for the law, teaching
a detriment");
and text books;
the large expenditure on defence as /compared
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