R.14/7
CONFIINTIAL Clawley (19)
fd. entro + P.U.
with references. просто.
My dear Lerlie,
7
LAST
25
Lo.
3
COLONIAL SECRETARIAT
HOANG KÉN ĐÔI
this. P.P.
July
Among the points which David Trench mentioned in the tape he sent me was your letter of the 6th April 1971 to him on the subject of housing, with which was enclosed a copy of a letter sent to Lord Garner by the Worker Student Political Action Committee.
.م.م
LA
152
I am sorry that you have not had a reply earlier, but the reasons were twofold. First, we wanted the preliminary results of the just completed census, which were likely to assist us in reassessing the size of our housing problem. Secondly, the genuine difficulty we have in complying with your request for an indication of the extent to which the problem will be solved by the implementation of the Housing Board's proposals. you yourself are well aware, problems of overcrowding are never finally solved in any big city. London has been trying for some hundreds of years. The extent to which the situation will be relieved over the next six years, during which we plan to rehouse about a quarter of the population, is almost unassessable, depending as it does on imponderables and, what is more, on future imponderables
As
for instance
any alteration in the birth rate or the degree of illegal immigration from the mainland over the same period.
However, we have had a shot. Figures given in the attachment to this letter, unless otherwise indicated, relate purely to low- cost and resettlement housing.
Perhaps I should say here that the Worker Student Political Action Committee is an unregistered organisation comprising a small group of dissident British nationals. It operates from Flat 3, 375, Nathan Road, 10th floor, Kowloon, and first came to notice in December, 1970, when it sent 'Prosperity" Christmas cards to many senior Government officers and prominent local personalities sarcastically wishing them a prosperous new year in contrast to a picture depicting the poverty of the 'Aldrich Village' in Shaukiwan on the cover of the card.
This group of
Sir Leslie Monson, KCMG, CB, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London, S.W.1.
CONFIDENTIAL
RECOYED IN REGISTRY No.51 19 JUL 2971
HKCK MA