parts of the buildings and in the public spaces within the curtilage of the buildings requires constant and vigilant patrol- ling coupled with a high degree of tact and understanding. Very numerous complaints are dealt with, quarrels are composed if possible, crimes are reported to the Police and hawkers restrained from creating a nuisance or obstruction.
77. The Urban Council was very much aware, during the year under review, of these administrative problems. The Reset- tlement Estates Select Committee of the Council, which was formed early in 1955, meets regularly every fortnight. During the first three months of its work this Committee personally inspected over 60 individual rooms of which the occupants had refused to conform with the simple rules laid down. This close and personal contact between the Council and the estates greatly strengthens the hand of the departmental staff in their efforts gradually to raise the standards of hygiene and health. Respect for the law also has to be taught. Everyone knows that it is illegal to deal in opium, but many former squatters seem sur- prised to learn, for example, that the preparation of cooked food for sale may be carried out only under licence and that such a licence is not to be had unless certain basic rules governing hygiene are complied with.
78. The above paragraphs relate primarily to the new multi-storey estates, but the same considerations apply to a great extent in the temporary resettlement areas. In these there is more space, so that sanitation and allied problems do not loom quite so large. But the basic need to integrate the settlers into the community remains the same.
79. It has been emphasized that resettlement is not in itself a welfare operation and that the department is not a welfare agency. But this process of integration can never be made effective merely through restrictive rules and regulations. There must be a positive side to the process of teaching the people what it can mean to be a citizen, in the fullest sense, of this great city, and here the Social Welfare Office and the voluntary
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