perilous squalor. The total population amounted to between five and six thousand persons, but during the autumn of 1954 two substantial fire lanes had been driven through the area, dividing it into three distinct sections and thus limiting the fire risk, it was supposed, to perhaps 2,000 persons. In other words three fires were now needed to destroy this area instead of one. Between 20th and 26th November, 1954, all three fires took place, one by one. There was clear evidence that the second fire was the result of arson and the third was never satisfactorily ex- plained. There was no reason to suppose that there was any political motive or background, but it was necessary to assume that a few unscrupulous persons were not above exploiting, for their own ends and without regard to the hardship and loss caused to others, the relief and resettlement measures which the Government had put in hand for the benefit of squatter fire victims. The Urban Council undertook an immediate review of this unwelcome situation:-as regards direct relief in the form of free food it was suggested that the Government's previous policy might have erred on the generous side; and whilst fire victims could by no means look forward to immediate resettle- ment it was certainly true to say that in the past the resettlement of fire victims had been given a high priority; what was more important, the temporary street-shacks which fire victims were permitted to build whilst they were awaiting resettlement, squalid as they were, represented rent-free accommodation comparable with that for which most of them had paid exorbitant rents in squatter structures. It appeared that a fibre-board street shack cost no more than $30-$40 to erect, but that the same space in a squatter hut, less conveniently placed for the centres of employment, might cost $15-$20 a month in rent. On the advice of the Urban Council the Government announced, at the end of 1954, that the victims of future squatter fires would in general receive free food for no more than one month and that a fire would in no circumstances be a short cut to resettlement.
30. The announcement attracted little comment from press, public, squatters or fire victims, and the implementation of the new policy proceeded uneventfully. There was one squatter fire
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