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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Besides resettlement of squatters, there is also the question of providing re-accommodation for an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 persons who are living in over-crowded or slum areas of the worst types imaginable. According to the Hong Kong 1956 Annual Report, our housing position has gone from bad to worse. Last year the number of new tenement houses built by private capital was just sufficient for the 58,000 new immigrants (assuming they could pay the rents demanded) who came into the Colony in 1956. As for last year's 77,000 natural increase by excess of births over deaths, the less we say about it the better!
One thing is certain: there is going to be no let-up in this natural birth increase in the coming years! (Laughter).
So we see that the most urgent problem today for the majority of our population is that of housing! While the work of the Housing Authority and other bodies engaged in providing low-cost housing is proceeding apace, it cannot be said that we are anywhere near a solution to our housing problems. It is for this reason that I particularly welcome Government's appointment of Mr. G. T. Rowe as Commissioner for Housing, and it is to be hoped that steps will be taken to establish the recommended Department of Housing at the earliest possible date.
Some of the immediate tasks of the proposed Housing Department, at least in my view, would appear to be to seek a more decisive and dynamic Town Planning Policy, and to carry out as soon as possible the recommendation to have a housing survey made. I think the carrying out of this housing survey is essential if Government is to arrive at a well-defined slum clearance policy.
A further task of the envisaged Housing Department should be to encourage the increased availability of funds for the purpose of providing accommodation to meet the pocket of the majority of the population. Some of the suggestions which have been put forward in this connexion are:—
(1) the recall of a portion of the Colony's sterling balances for reinvestment locally in housing and developmental projects;
(2) co-operating with local banks and other financial institutions to support on a long-term basis more low-cost housing programmes to be sponsored by large firms or co-operative bodies;
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(3) inviting the Colonial Development Corporation to invest in a large-scale building society in Hong Kong as the corporation have already done in other Colonial territories;
(4) the floating of loans on the London market for housing and general development;
(5) the obtaining of housing and developmental loans from international agencies such as the International Finance Corporation;
(6) seeking United Nations aid for the provision of economic and other assistance to the Hong Kong Government to help solve our housing and other related problems which have arisen mainly as a result of the huge refugee influx.
It will be recalled that Dr. Edward Hambro in his report on the Hong Kong refugee problem recommended that a sum of US$10 million should be found to relieve the distress of the Chinese refugees in Hong Kong. I disagree with Mr. Philip Au that US$10 million should be considered as a large sum.
In my view a figure of US$100 million would be more appropriate, and even this amount would not be sufficient to meet the total need.
The Hong Kong Government alone has already spent directly and indirectly the equivalent of over US$50 million on refugee welfare, and for the next few years is committed to spend at least another US$50 million on its resettlement programme. By allocating US$100 million to succour the Chinese refugees in Hong Kong, the United Nations would simply be matching what the Hong Kong Government has spent or is about to spend.
The year 1957 may well go down in history as the "Year of the Chinese Refugee" inasmuch as after seven long years, the United Kingdom Government has at last been able to place the Chinese refugee question before the United Nations Refugee Advisory Committee, which met last January, and the matter has now been referred to the United Nations Economic & Social Council for eventual consideration at the 12th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The Urban Council, Mr. Chairman, is the only Council in the Colony on which there are representatives who have been elected by popular consent. I am sure that all the elected members
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