THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH
3
1938
MR. J. P. BRAGA AND HONG KONG'S HOUSING PROBLEM
Sir-It is about time that atten- of supply and demand, they have tion was again drawn to the hous-rto make up for the lean *years ing problem in Hong Kong.
Since the matter assumed serious proportions in the autumn of last year, the gravity of the situation has been further accentuated rather than diminished.
through which they have passed. However, in the majority of cases that have recently been brought to my notice old residents are given no option, they are served with notice to quit upon the expiry of the bare statutory minimum of only one month.
To re-introduce the Rent Restric- tions Ordinance, as it existed in the Colony some years ago as an In the present pressing condi- emergency measure, is, I consider, tions, language need not be strained an inadvisable step. I say so within order to illustrate the harrying a perfect practical acquaintance plight of local wage-earners. The with the effect of the Restriction cost of living has risen through a Bill and of the one-sidedness of its combination of circumstances which operation to the prejudice of the they find it extremely difficult to genuine as opposed to the specula-cope tive class of landlords.
with. Well-to-do transient visitors are accommodated at the expense of permanent residents; they obtain security and freedom from the severe hardship and anxiety which evicted tenants are made to suffer.
Let it be granted at the outset, as has been demonstrated by the Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council, or a majority of them, that landlords as a class had gone through a very lean period I have been at some pains in stat- after the financial crisis of 1932. Iting the case for the helpless ten- was with considerable cogency that ants, having regard to the realities the argument was. advanced in of the situation. The least appeal Council in behalf of landlords that that can be urged in behalf of bona the reasonable rise in rents, bring-fide Hong Kong residents is that ing them more or less to a pre-Government and the Unofficial crisis level, was not only justified Members of the Legislative Council but eminently desirable for those take into immediate and earnest. who sought a sound form of invest-consideration the introduction of a ment in landed property and house short Bill, with its passage through construction in Hong Kong.
a single sitting of the Council, to the The present situation, however, enable tenants to be given presents a totally different aspect. option of paying a fair and reason- The recent great increase in the able increase in rent. The phrase population of the Colony has caught “fair and reasonable" is not cap- it wholly unprepared to provide ac- |able of easy definition; but a way commodation for all. As a result of this abnormal increase, estimated at over a quarter million, residents are being driven in ever-increasing numbers out of their homes. In many cases. tenants are being given notice to vacate their houses with- out even the option of paying an in- crease in rent. It is from these per- sons that complaint arises. For them practical sympathy is enlisted, and in their interests and for their protection legislative aid is in- voked.
may be found out of the difficulty with the counsel of wisdom procur able in the Council Chamber, Sum- mary eviction is a high-handed pro- cedure inflicting serious hardship on the victims.
If Government, after the advice tendered to them by the Unofficial Members of the Council should ap- pear hesitant to legislate for what is an economic reform of pressing urgency, may I appeal to some one of the Unofficial Members to intro- duce a Private Bill along the lines
Such Were our resident and domiciled suggested above?
a step citizens to be given an opportunity would, I consider, provide a remedy that is becoming of paying a fair and reasonable in-for a situation crease in rent, it is felt that no intolerable and weighing heavily. justifiable complaint could be on the wage-earning population, supported against landlords, who, upon whose services the commercial after all, are acting within their and industrial life of Hong Kong legal right and who may be expect so largely depends. ed to argue that, following the law
J. P. BRAGA.
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