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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Finally, one final point I would like to make is that while Elected Members have differences of view, there seems to be one interest which they all have in common, and that is low-cost housing for teachers.
To proceed with my set speech, Mr. Chairman, I do not wish to dwell on all the points, but I would like to bring up one subject which I feel I am impelled to frankly state my views, referring to items (14) and (15) in the Summary, which seem to represent Council's resettlement aims for the current year. Mr. P. D. Au has expressed himself very strongly on the subject, and there is a lot which he says that deserves the attention of the Council, and I fully support most of what he says.
I do not have to tell you, Mr. Chairman, that the Resettlement Department has done a magnificent job in having resettled a quarter of a million people in the last few years. You also know that we will have to resettle another 210,000 persons by 1962. At least that is our programme. The whole world sympathizes with Hong Kong for its refugee and squatter problem. Praises have been and continue to be heaped upon us for our resettlement work. Yet when it comes to lifting a finger to help us in solving this "problem of people", apart from a few international voluntary organizations, everyone shies away from us — including most members of the United Nations Organization, and even our own metropolitan government, the United Kingdom.
When I called at the Colonial Office in London last October, I was given the assurance that Her Majesty's Government would give every possible assistance, irrespective of whether or not help should come through the United Nations Organization. Six months have elapsed, and neither the United Nations Organization nor Her Majesty's Government have come forward with any concrete proposal of aid or any large-scale contribution which would assist us in alleviating our problem. We can draw but one conclusion, and only one conclusion: that Hong Kong's 700,000 refugees and squatters are being grossly discriminated against! That Her Majesty's Government has seen fit to turn her back on our appeal for aid! And we can only cry "Shame on the powers that be!".
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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As your Policy Summary has so succinctly stated, this Council must "remain constantly alert and aware of the magnitude and importance of the problem, which is the integration into the community of several hundred thousand former squatters”.
It will be recalled, Mr. Chairman, that a Sample Survey of the three Resettlement Estates of Shek Kip Mei, Li Cheng Uk, and Tai Hang Tung was recently completed. The Survey disclosed that the most urgent problems of these three estates, in which more than 120,000 residents live, were: want, ignorance, disease, squalor, and idleness. And I think quite a bit has been said about the problems that exist in the Resettlement areas.
The tentative conclusions that can be drawn from the Survey are: (1) that the number of families reached by welfare agencies is very small indeed; and (2) that the field is wide open in the Resettlement areas and estates for improved social services, without which it would be impossible to effectively integrate resettlement residents into the general community. And as we press forward with our resettlement building programme, the problem of providing more social services and of integration will become even more acute. Should we not then take stock of our position and decide upon more positive action to be taken in this field, which would be in the long-term interests of the people of Hong Kong?
By far, the greater proportion of the residents in the resettlement areas and estates are refugees. Hong Kong has always been traditionally sympathetic towards those who, for one reason or another, wish to take refuge within the small confines of our territory. But in fairness to our local-born and to those who have lived here for most or all of their lives, it should be bluntly stated that every dollar spent on refugee and squatter resettlement and welfare means one dollar less being available for use on improving the low standard of living of our own indigenous population.
Not so long ago, a local newspaper, in editorializing on our refugee and squatter problem, came up with an excellent suggestion: that the minimum contribution of Her Majesty's Government towards our squatter and refugee problem might well take the form of a waiving of the Colony's annual defence contribution for a number of years, and that the sum total of such contributions could be applied either towards completion of the resettlement
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