6.
7.
CONFIDENTIAL & 機密
There is, however, an exception to the government water supply
policy. 5 meters are installed in the Walled City. These serve four voluntary charitable organisations who have been granted the privilege on the basis that they provide a service to the Walled City community. With the impending opening of
a youth centre in the Alms House Welfare Complex, an
application for a further meter is expected. The existence
of these meters have been the source of some ill-feeling among Walled City residents who did not think much of the logic of giving an exceptional position to the voluntary organisations,
nor does the existence of these meters make a government claim
that a household supply technically impracticable any more credible. Moreover, it is known both to the police, to CDO(KC),
to the residents, and possibly to WWO, that there are illegal tappings upon the supply pipelines to these five meters.
Against the background just described, it is not surprising
that pressures for a direct household supply are mounting.
In August 1972, a petition signed by more than 50 Walled City
residents was sent to Hon. SHA for "an early household supply
to be given to the long suffering residents of the Walled City".
In 1973, the Walled City Kaifong Promotion Committee, despite
its professed anti-Government stand, tried the conciliatory
approach of petitioning the Colonial Secretary for the same
favour. Throughout 1973, letters on the same subject usually
anonymously signed and purporting to represent all Walled City residents have been received by CDO(KC). Where addresses were
given, replies have been sent on the lines of the reply given to the 50 petitioners of August 1972, that is, present
Government policy precludes supplying water to individual
households but that improvements will be effected at the
periphery. This line of reply is gradually loosing credibility
amidst accusations of official collusion with illegal water
supply syndicates operating in the Walled City, the exhaustion
of standpipe sites in the periphery, and of course, the anomalous existence of the 5 meters within the 'City'. Clearly we are
in a difficult position.
CONFIDENTIAL # Z