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may legally build their own huts, so that they may live in a normal, law-abiding manner until they become eligible for proper housing on the waiting-list. To allow them to come to Hong Kong, issue them with temporary identity cards, then leave them to the mercy of triads and racketeers to provide them with housing, water, electricity and other necessities, is setting up a Government within a Government, and certainly making crime pay. The government must learn that what it does not provide for the public, will be provided by the triads with intimidation and violence.
If the policies I propose are worked out, I believe that enormous numbers of public housing units could be recovered and used for those who have patiently waited for their turn for housing, waited too long because of selfish and lawless elements which always seem to get priority just because the Government adopts the line of least resistance against racketeers.
It is useless to have a big housing programme unless we have a fair policy of allocation. It is now time to get out of the old rut, and to change to a new track. We cannot afford to shelve the problem just because it is not easy to tackle.
There are other problems I should like to pinpoint, but time is limited. I shall therefore mention only in passing that when the Government permitted large numbers of Vietnamese and Mainland Chinese immigrants to come here, it assured the public that the livelihood of the local people would not be affected. That promise was totally false and has not been kept. There is now a shortage of other things besides housing: medical care, social welfare facilities, transport and so on. The Government therefore has the responsibility to improve the services so that no one has to suffer from the inflated population.
On the one hand, we need to help the newcomers to be absorbed into the population, but on the other hand, the Government must see to it that this is not done at the expense of the lowest strata of wage-earners, which is at present the case.
I should now like to say a word about monopolies. Like the triads, they can hold the people to ransom, but in so doing they have the official blessing of the Government. Since these monopoly companies are public companies and base their profit-grabbing on assets, their appetite will never be appeased. I have therefore come to the conclusion that in our present circumstances, where the field of operation is colony-wide, there is no longer a place for public utility companies serving shareholders rather than serving the population. I believe it is time for these utilities to be operated on a non-profit-making basis. Those who manage the companies will be well enough paid for the job, but the public, especially those using public transport, simply cannot afford to pay a minimum of 15% profit for every share of every shareholder in these companies. The warnings in the past year have been very clear. The people are forming coalitions to oppose this exploitation which has created our aristocracy, but is now no longer acceptable.
With these thoughts, I support the motion.
MR. KENNETH T. C. Lo (in English):—Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the motion before the Council and will deal mainly with recreational facilities.
Our most important and popular form of recreation is undoubtedly swimming. We now have a total of 9 swimming pool complexes in the urban area, so we have gone some way towards fulfilling our objective of providing 1 swimming pool complex for every district of about 250,000 people. Nevertheless, it is disappointing that the last one was completed in Chai Wan about two years ago. Since then, we have no swimming pool complexes completed or even under construction.
There are a number planned, but construction for one reason or another has been delayed. The one at Lai Chi Kok will be on reclaimed land, but the reclamation has not yet been completed. There will be one at Hammer Hill which will be part of a big sports complex. The site is now occupied by industrial squatters. The clearance of these squatters by the Housing Department will be a difficult and complex process. At any rate, work on this site cannot start for the time being.
There will be the National Pool at Kowloon Park. The site is at present occupied by old military buildings and construction cannot start yet. Let me hasten to add that although the pool at Kowloon Park will be the national swimming pool, suitable for use for international and top-class competition, there is no intention to keep it for such events only. When not in use for competition, it will certainly be opened to the public for ordinary recreational swimming.
The greatest disappointment in the programme for building swimming pools is the one at Shum Shui Po. The planning had been completed and we were all set to start work a couple of years ago. Then there was a sudden emergency---- the influx of boat refugees from Vietnam. The swimming pool complex was to be built on the site of the former Shum Shui Po Military Camp. The Government had to use the Camp for housing the refugees. This was a decision we must accept as being right although the result is disappointing for us.
Now, the flood of refugees appears to have dried up. The members remaining are dwindling and present indications are that the site can be handed over to us by the middle of this year. This will be a great boon to residents of Shum Shui Po District, which is probably worse off for recreational facilities than any other district in Hong Kong.
After these disappointments, I am glad to turn to a success story. We have completed a new hockey pitch at King's Park. The surface is Astroturf which is expensive but is the only material at present accepted by the International Hockey Federation for top-level tournaments. The ground was scheduled for completion last autumn and we decided jointly with the Hong Kong Hockey
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