PART I
GENERAL REPORT AND SURVEY OF THE YEAR
INTRODUCTION
It is commonplace to remark that Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The population of the Colony at the end of 1964 was estimated to be 3.7 million and the projected increase in population to be levelling off at about 100,000 a year. Perhaps the most formidable demo- graphic feature over the past 5 years has been the redistribution of population arising from the growth of new industrial and residential areas on the perimeter of the older urban areas. The crowded areas of Victoria and Kowloon peninsula have tended to lose population to the Factory and Resettlement estates at Chai Wan, Aberdeen, and Pok Fu Lam on the Island and at Kwun Tong, Wong Tai Sin, Cheung Sha Wan and the Tsuen Wan/Kwai Chung complex on the Mainland. Not that the older areas are at all likely to become 'ghost towns' because, even after the redistribution is complete, the population of old Hong Kong is unlikely to be less than 1 million or that of old Kowloon less than 2 millions. Moreover tourism and the traditional preference of commercial and financial concerns for having their headquarters centrally locat- ed will certainly preserve them as the main centres of activity in the Colony. They are however gradually changing their aspect and crowded old tenements are giving way to multi-storey concrete apartments which, if not more beautiful, are certainly more sanitary and orderly.
2. The Police Force cannot afford to be behind in this process of rapid development. It has to expand and to acquire the extra housing and equipment that are needed step by step with the creation of newly populated areas. For example the Low Cost Housing and Resettlement Programme envisages the provision of housing for 1.9 million people in the next 10 years apart from substantial industrial and housing schemes in the private sector which will proceed during the same period.
3. The Police Force has a well-established organization but not one that can ever be static for long periods. The spread of police activities to new areas means that the structure of the Force has to be kept under constant review. With the co-operation of the central Government police planning aims to keep abreast of all new development.
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