Progress was made with plans for the erection of blocks of flats both by Government and by private enterprise, and in some cases construction work got under way. Shortages and delay in delivery of steel and other items slowed down construction programmes.
The rehabilitation of hotels made excellent progress and this has helped to meet what at one time appeared to be an almost desperate situation in regard to the provision of accommodation for many families. As in the previous year the hotel companies continued to work in co-operation with Government and provided austerity meals in order to reduce the cost of living for those compelled to accept this type of accommodation. Hotels, private hotels, boarding houses and hostels were completely booked up and with still more people to return it appears as if a partial reversion to dormitory accommo- dation may be necessary. Minor relief should be afforded in the Spring of 1948 by the departure from the Colony on leave of a number of the population.
Powers to requisition property are still extant, but as the policy of Government has been to derequisition premises wherever possible, and thus promote an early return to normal conditions, these powers were not exercised.
The number of premises held under requisition for use by the combined services and Government at the beginning of 1947 amounted to 389: at the end of the year this had been reduced to 131.
SOCIAL WELFARE.
Most of the constructive official welfare work done in 1947 was shared between six government departments; in addition the Colony continued to be fortunate in the traditionally large amount of welfare work done by its numerous voluntary organisations. Other sections of this Report describe the social welfare activities which were predominantly the concern of medical, educational or penal experts; the remainder of this chapter outlines the experiments and undertakings which were shared by the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, the post-war Relief Section of the Medical Department and many voluntary organisations. It is worth noting that during 1947 over eight million Hong Kong dollars were spent by the Government in direct grants to unofficial organisations which were contributing to the social services of the Colony.
As a result of a general survey of street-sleepers and destitutes in the middle of the year it was estimated that there were then up to 9,000 homeless children in the urban areas, by far the greater number of whom had migrated from South China with or without their parents during the previous twelve months. Nearly 2,000 of the orphans and other completely destitute children were being looked after in various institutions, schools or camps; free food centres were open every day for all the others, and as the cooler weather set in large amounts of clothing
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