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Hong Kong Civic Association,
P.0. Box 920,
Hong Kong.
June 7, 1957.
The Rt. Hon. Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd, K.P., Secretary of State for the Colonies,
London.
sir,
The Civic Association has been following with growing concern the efforts of the United Kingdom Goverment and the local Govern- ment to obtain assistance from the United Nations for the 700,000 Chinese refugees in Hongkong.
These refugees constitute the world's gravest refugee problem, considering the limited land area and the high population density in Hongkong.
The refugee problem has created serious education, housing medical and other social problems in Hongkong. At least 180,00 children of refugee parents either have no school to go to of are without proper schooling facilities, while the local Government has resettled over 200,000 squatters, there are still 330,000 more to be resettled. The medical needs of the refugees are without parallel, which is perhaps why the T.B. death rate in Hongkong is one of highest, if not the highest in the world, Partly as a result of the refugee influx, unemployment juvenile delinquency, heroin smoking and other social problems have increased and they aré potentially serious threats to Hongkong's stability and economic progress.
For seven years the problem of the Chinese refugees in Hongkong has een shuttled back and forth in the international arena of nations. The local Government has meanwhile not sat back with folded arms to patiently wait until the United Nations should make up its mind what to do. A huge resettlement programme is under way. It is, in fact, too vast in size and scope to be undertaken alone, without outside help, by the Hongkong Government. The limited funds at the disposal of the local Government are and should be utilized for the long-term development and general stability of Hongkong « Further substantial amounts should be provided to expand the housing, medical and education facilities that are so desperately needed by the llongkong refugees. Those funds ought to be forthcoming from the United Nations through its office for the High Commissioner for Refugees.
The Civic Association therefore respectfully requests the Secretary of State for the Colonics to steadfastly support the cause for the Chinese refugees in Hongkong, so that when the case is presented by the United Kingdom Delegation at the forthcoming session of the United Nations Twelfth General Assembly, the international community will, in conscience bound, be constrained upon to agree to provide substantial aid to relieve the distress of our long suffering refugees.
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We have the honour to be,
sir,
Yours faithfully,
HONGKONG CIVIC ASSOCIATION
(Sgd.) Hilton Cheong-Ragn56 of 85
Hon. Secretary
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