BOOK REVIEWS
233
Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society-richly deserves the reward of seeing the wildlife of the Republic of Korea better protected in the future. This is, after all, the ultimate aim of books like this.
Hong Kong, 1972.
MICHAEL WEBSTER.
ASIAN URBANIZATION: A HONG KONG CASE-BOOK edited by D. J. Dwyer, University of Hongkong Press. HK$60.
THE squalid living conditions which are typical of the bulk of Hongkong's housing have been a major focus for research at the University of Hongkong over the years. Overseas scholars have failed, unfortunately, to take much note of the lessons of the Hongkong situation. Asian town planners, too, have neglected to profit by the rich experience of Hongkong in attempting first to rehouse an immigrant population in a war-ravaged city and then to come to grips with the problem of holding a balance between what the Government could do to alleviate slum squalor without completely undermining the private entrepreneur in the housing market.
This work draws together a number of papers which represent a bid by a combination of geographers and civil servants to discuss the background to urban living problems in this colony. The studies also include a provocative contribution by a lawyer and an interesting essay by a town planner (who is also a qualified architect) to round off the discussion.
Half the papers were delivered first at a 1968 symposium, and this clearly has presented some headaches for the editor. The various chapters straddle, not always comfortably, the straightforward, simple narratives necessary to spark off seminar discussion while attempting to retain an academic approach based on original research.
However, the volume is more coherent in style and more effectively drawn together than is usual with books of this sort, which is a tribute to the editor's labour. But much of the information is dated because of the time-lag in getting this work out.
In many ways, the most interesting pieces have been put together by two civil servants. Pryor's effort to apply techniques developed