indirectly to the war in Korea. Few squatters were destitute but most were poor, and whilst some could afford to take advantage of the forms of resettlement offered to them, very many could not. In the "approved" areas, in order to avoid the necessity for the settler to produce a substantial lump sum in cash, independent contractors had been allowed to build cottages under franchise and to sell them on hire-purchase terms. A more successful measure adopted in the same areas, with the same object in view, was the setting up in September, 1952, of the non- profit-making Hong Kong Settlers' Housing Corporation. This corporation, which was financed partly by the Government and partly from funds subscribed by the public, built over 1,500 large and small cottages to be sold to settlers on hire-purchase terms, the instalments being $35 and $20 a month respectively. In spite of these expedients and in spite of a good deal of assistance given by welfare agencies in individual cases, the basic difficulty re- mained, namely the fact that most squatters could not readily afford the forms of resettlement offered to them.
8. It will be useful to summarize, in more detail than has hitherto been given, the position as it stood in mid-December, 1953. Rather under 9,000 units of accommodation existed in resettlement areas. Of these about 4,400 were "approved" type domestic units and about 4,350 were "tolerated" domestic units. The remainder consisted of about 140 resettlement shops and about 40 resettlement factories and workshops. The total number of persons who had passed through the process of re- settlement stood at a little under 30,000, there were an additional 15,000 who, whilst they were in resettlement areas and had to some extent been brought within the scope of resettlement ad- ministration, were still virtually living in squatter conditions, and it was estimated that perhaps 250,000 squatters remained to be resettled. In addition to the difficulties referred to in the preceding paragraph the shortage of land suitable for any large- scale extension of existing resettlement operations was becoming ominously apparent. A new "tolerated" area was being prepared at Chuk Yuen, north of Kai Tak, but this would be unlikely to house much more than about ten thousand persons. At Ngau
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