}
70. These were some of the difficulties which were resolved during the year's clearances and particularly during the rapid and large-scale Li Cheng Uk clearance, since this constituted the first major test of the Government's new policy and of the department's organization. The conclusion was that the system worked, that any squatter area could be cleared into multi-storey resettlement accommodation very rapidly, but that some new provision would have to be made for the re-establishment of certain types of large workshop if they were not to be put ou of business.
CHAPTER XI
ADMINISTRATION AND WELFARE
71. It is worth while to emphasize again that the resettle- ment of squatters is not a welfare operation. It is the removal of a very serious fire risk, health risk and threat to public order, and it is undertaken in the interests of the community as a whole. But it cannot be regarded as a once-for-all operation, to be carried out and forgotten. At the end of the year under review it was known that out of the whole urban population one person in every ten would shortly be resident in a resettlement area or estate, most of them living as direct tenants of the Government in buildings owned by the Government. The nature and origin of these tenants and above all the scale of these operations give rise to problems which can be readily imagined.
72. Squatter areas are virtually incapable of normal admin- istration. As they have no roads and cannot therefore be policed by normal methods they naturally attract the drug trafficker, the petty gangster and other criminal elements. They are ideal for the small scale industrialist who wishes to evade the provi- sions of the law governing factories. They have neither drains nor mains water supply and cannot conform with even the most primitive health requirements. There can be no control over the layout and design of the structures or over the use to which they are put, for the structures are themselves illegal. For
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