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system itself is directed towards low-level income, number of dependants, degree of disability, age. So that in considering possible candidates for the purpose of recommending hawker licences, these would tend to come to the fore.
You are asking me in the second part of the question "what we would do for a widow with six children". I can only say that it seems highly likely that such a person would be in receipt of public assistance, if nothing else from the Department. If necessary the assistance would continue up to the time she was able to obtain a fixed pitch licence, and, indeed, it would, in fact, continue further until the person concerned, or the family concerned, was economically and socially viable and had no further need of the services of the Department.
MRS. ELLIOTT:- Mr. Chairman, at the risk of being ruled out of order again, I would like to ask the Director, through you, if he would look into the case of how much assistance is given to a widow with six children, because, as far as I can see, these widows live in constant fear of being evicted from their houses?
DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL WELFARE: I should certainly be glad, Sir, to look into any individual case of which Mrs. ELLIOTT might like to give me details.
MRS. ELLIOTT:- Mr. Chairman, I have an idea that the Chairman of the Hawker Management Select Committee and the Director of Social Welfare were rather contradicting each other. May I ask for clarification? On the one hand, I understand the Hawker Management Select Committee Chairman was saying that strict priority means 1,2,3 according to when they register, and the Director was talking about 1,2,3, according to need.
MR. LOBO:- Mr. Chairman, I cannot speak for the Social Welfare Department. I can only speak for the Hawker Management Select Committee.
Director of SOCIAL WELFARE:- I am sorry, I may have been a bit confusing. I did not say how people qualify for recommendation, I did say it was according to a points system, but points can, of course, be added up in different ways and they are recommended as they come along. It is in the Select Committee that they put them in "first come, first served".
MRS. ELLIOTT:- In other words, Mr. Chairman, am I right that a widow with six children would get no priority at all over a single man?
MR. LOBO:- No, she would be put on the priority list, but not ahead of the others, because there may be other widows or mothers or deformed people who are in need, in a greater need than she is.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. BERNACCHI : Mr. Chairman, is there not some confusion? Surely the Director of Social Welfare means that to qualify there is a points system? Having qualified, then they come to the Hawker Management Select Committee who has a list in strict terms of first come, first served?
MR. LOBO:- That is quite correct.
(8) MR. HENRY H. L. Hu asked the following question:-
Could the Chairman inform the Council how many persons are still waiting for domestic resettlement? Why we cannot give domestic resettlement to people living in Class II resite area when they ask for it? What is the yearly quota for domestic resettlement on compassionate grounds? What are the qualifications for compassionate grounds? Could the quota be increased and qualifications for compassionate grounds be less strict for domestic resettlement? What is the principal aim for having domestic resettlement in Hong Kong?
THE ACTING COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:-
In answer to the first and sixth parts of this question, the categories of persons eligible for resettlement are set out in the 1964 White Paper on Squatter Control, Resettlement and Government Low Cost Housing. The principal (but not the only) object of resettlement is to clear and reaccommodate people living on Crown land as and when it is needed for development. These people might be squatters living in tolerated illegal structures on Crown land, or the occupants of cottage areas, or persons living in licensed areas. Since there is no plan for the clearance of all squatters per se, only those persons being processed for resettlement at any one time may be said to be "still waiting for domestic resettlement".
The second part of the question concerns domestic resettlement from Class II licensed areas. Mr. Hu is, I believe, aware that these areas were created as a result of the 1964 White Paper, which envisaged that entry should be limited to those who can satisfy the department that they are genuinely homeless and that licensees would have no prospect of early resettlement. Last year we came to the conclusion that it will be necessary to "turn over" Class II areas from time to time and resettle their occupants. This