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in-advance scheme. Also, of course, the co-ordinating Committee which the previous working party recommended was formed in a totally different way from that which we contemplated it and we did not, even as a Council, have a say in this co-ordinating Body. With these exceptions I take full responsibility for having been a party to the recommendations which were ultimately laid down in the White Paper of 1964, but I say that the time has come in 1971 to review the priorities.
I personally am all in favour of granting resettlement to everyone who is in housing need through natural disaster. They should be given priority No. 1, even if the commitments for the clearance of squatters from Crown Land has to be reduced. I appreciate that the Government wants to clear squatters from usable Crown Land, not only for sale but also very frequently for community purposes such as the erection of public buildings or even just for more open spaces, but nevertheless it should not be done in priority to any victims of natural disasters. Then again in 1971, provisions should be made for total resettlement of roof top squatters gradually, say, over the next five years. At present so many social welfare cases give an address as an un-numbered hut on some roof-top. The same goes for street huts which should also be totally cleared away and the occupants offered resettlement. These are merely some preliminary observations on my proposed priorities with the stress being on emergency housing, as opposed to the waiting list housing of the Housing Authority and the Low-Cost Housing.
I am also pleased to see that Mrs. ELLIOTT's Motion suggests that the new Working Party also examine the management of resettlement estates. In 1952 when the name Resettlement was coined for Hong Kong, it came from Malaya, it was as a division of the old sanitary department later called the Urban Services Department. Then the Government on the recommendations of the Urban Council went in for multi-storey resettlement in 1954 and set up a Resettlement Department which department now handles numerous estates that house in all well over one million people. I take my hat off to the Resettlement Department for managing to house ever expanding numbers with no real professional help at least until very very recently. But again in 1971 there is a need for a re-look to see what professional help is essential to make resettlement a form of public housing which Hong Kong people can be proud of and to do the same thing effectively about the present almost slum conditions that now prevail in the older estates. In my opinion there should be one department of housing with adequate numbers of trained staff in housing management divided into three divisions, one the better type of housing authority flats, two, the ordinary low-cost housing and three, resettlement which must be the same type of accommodation as low-cost housing but essentially for emergency housing needs. For ten years now we have been urging greater co-operation between the Resettlement Department and the Housing Authority, which is ourselves under a different cloak, and such is duly inserted into our aims and logics. The time has come for some positive action to be taken, not just the exchange of a very limited number of staff.
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operation between the Resettlement Department and the Housing Authority, which is ourselves under a different cloak, and such is duly inserted into our aims and logics. The time has come for some positive action to be taken, not just the exchange of a very limited number of staff.
Lastly, but by no means leastly, in my opinion, the Housing Board needs to be re-examined. I personally think that with the experience we have had with the present Housing Board there is too much duplication and the Housing Authority and Resettlement are in effect under the Urban Council and the Housing Authority manages low-cost housing. The management therefore of all public housing is in fact under the Urban Council and we have also recommended that the Housing Authority, that is to say, the Urban Council be given an active part to play in slum clearance, even in the pilot scheme stage and for the life of me I do not see why we should be dictated to by a Housing Board composed now mainly of non Urban Councillors largely not having present day to day experience on the ground whereas a high-powered Policy Select Committee of this Council could and should do all that the Housing Board does at present and very much quicker. Such a highly powered Policy Select Committee from the Urban Council could be given terms of reference which include reviewing policies for resettlement and squatter control even without the necessity to have a Government appointed Working Party again, say, in six or seven years time. Certainly if the Housing Board is continued it should co-operate with the Urban Council very much more than it did in the past and for that purpose should by constitution have representation from the Urban Council on the Board. But I do say that the Housing Board is purely duplicating work which can and should be done by a Select Committee of the Urban Council. I would like to see in the end the Urban Council be given Colony wide powers in certain aspects of our Government like housing. The abolition of the Housing Authority itself and the placing of all public housing under the Urban Council instead of this farcical weak set up of two separate bodies which must be by constitution predominantly, if not exclusively, be composed of the same people. For all these reasons, I urge Members, Mr. Chairman, to vote in favour of this Motion. There is a pressing need for a Working Party to consider the view of policies given in the 1964 White Paper, also to examine the management of resettlement estates generally, I say with no holds barred. Mr. Chairman, I am therefore happy to second this Motion.
CHAIRMAN:-The Motion has been moved and seconded. Does any Member wish to speak?
MR. HU: Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the Motion. Judging from the number of questions put by Members today it would be sufficient to indicate the importance of the question of resettlement in