13
APPENDIX 2.
NOTE ON SURVEY OF DAMAGED BUILDINGS.
CL
1. The first of the Committee's terms of reference instructs them to find and state the facts relating to the present condition of buildings in the Colony and to report on the extent of the damage done to buildings of all types, placing them in categories according to their functions." In order to obtain the necessary data, parties of technical staff of the Buildings Branch, C.A.S., were organised to cover the civil buildings of the City of Victoria, Kowloon, the Peak and the main outlying built-up areas of the Colony. The data obtained has been tabulated in Tables I & II. This does NOT include buildings belonging to the Services.
64
2. Time did not permit of an elaborate survey of each individual building, so they were placed under selected main heads, divided as follows:-European Classes I & II; Chinese Residential Classes I & II; Chinese Tenement Houses; Offices; Factories; and Stores. Each building was sub-divided into typical units For example, the unit for a Chinese Tenement House was taken as one floor of size 15′ x 40'; so that an average tenement house five stories high was considered as 5 units. A figure was worked out for the average number of occupants per unit for each class of building, and quantities of the chief materials required for repairing each unit were determined.
3. The structural condition of each type was dealt with under five heads:-
A. Suitable for immediate occupation or requiring little more work than
colour-washing, re-glazing broken windows, etc.
B. Having a roof and a fair proportion of window and door frames, concrete
floor slabs or wooden joists.
C. Having a roof, but having lost most of the woodwork, such as window and door frames, stair treads, wood block floors; also sanitary and lighting fittings.
D. Roofs and/or floor joists partly or wholly missing, but considered still
repairable, though a major operation.
E. Completely destroyed or not considered suitable for repair within twelve
months.
4. The number of damaged building units and their capacity is shewn in Table II, which may be summarised as follows:
BUILDING UNITS
DESTROYED DAMAGED
TOTALS
TEMP.
PERSONS DISPLACED
PERM.
TOTALS
1. European Class I...
107
834
941
3,670
535
4,205
2.
II ...
203
974
1,177
2,220
812
3,032
-""
"
3. Chinese Class I......
84
201
285
1,050
504
1,554
4.
JJ
II
78
368
446
1,440
468
1,908
5. Chinese Tenement
8,217
8,039
16,256
65,160
82,170 147,330
6. Offices
169
301
470
7. Factories
141
274
415
8. Stores
361
155
516
642
2,166
2,808
TOTALS
9,360 11,146 20,506
74,182 86,655 160,837
Figures for the population of the Colony are difficult to assess, but it has been estimated that the present population is, roughly, Chinese 1,000,000, Foreigners 800, not counting the Services. Within the next 12 months this may be increased to Chinese 1,500,000, Foreigners 10,000. The number of persons displaced expressed as a percentage of the probable population at the end of 1946 is:
Chinese
Foreigners
=
153,600 persons
10%
7,237
=
71
72%