CO129-450 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1918 [10-12] — Page 388

OP Y.

Sonclosure 6.

MEMORANDUM.

I have asked Honourable Members to meet me on Wednesday the 6th November to discuss the question of whether the Govern- ment would be justified in making loans on certain conditions for the purpose of building houses primarily for the accommodat- ion of the Chinese artisan and labouring classes.

The need of extra housing for a large number of people at moderate rents is I think clearly indicated from those port- ions of Lieut. Olitsky's report which deal with the cubicle system and its effect on public health. It may be said that the cubicle system is condemned and that, as opportunity offere, houses designed so es to make the construction of cubicles un- necessary, and even impossible, should be built. Without however, some encouragement in the manner indicated above it is unlikely that at the present time owners of undeveloped property will be willing to launch out in any extensive building operat- ions. The usual building covenante do not provide for more than the ordinary Chinese shop house, e mere shell of brickwork, Chinese fir joists and cheap flooring boards, which is easily subdivided into dark and insanitary cubicles. I, therefore, go so far as to say that in the building of new houses for the shopkeeping, ertisan and labouring classes the ordinary type of shop house must be abandoned in favour of houses which can be lighted at one side as well as from front and back.

The stretch of reclamation from Shạm Shui Po to Lai Chi Kok offers a fine opportunity for developing the principle enunciated above. There is already a considerable area of land to be built on, and an application has been received for Govern- ment help in the way of a loan. The reclamations contemplated in this neighbourhood will provide an area of land calculated to be sufficient for about 5,000 houses.

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