3..
Old bokses
not affected.
Housing of employees.
Reservations.
Opinions of Commission-
ers on Re servations.
ilessons for
Beservations.
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106. The proposal in paragraph 105, if adopted, would in no way delay the demolition and reconstruction of houses which are so old or lilapidated as to require reconstruction.
107. The housing of employees, already dealt with under Branch I, paragraph 27, will also tend to diminish rents, not merely by providing more houses but also by diminishing the number of people who are at present obliged to compete for houses to live in.
108. There is now only one aspect of the problem left to be dealt with by us. It is the question of how best to protect the various classes of the community from being, as they have been in the past, forced out of certain parts of the Colony, in which they have for years been residing, by economic pressure from outside.
109. It is the opinion of the Chairman and Mr. Bailey that the only meaus of attaining the desired result is the creation of reservations for all sec- tions of the community; and the views and recommendations contained in the following paragraphs relative to the subject are their views and recommenda- tions. Mr. Kotewall, recognising that the question is not one of racial discri- mination, and that, like the British residents, the Chinese and Portuguese permanent residents of the middle and working classes have suffered severely from the economic pressure caused by periodic influxes from the neighbour- ing Provinces, agrees to the principle of Reservations for British residents and for those Chinese permanent residents and residents of other races, who desire such Reservations.
Mr. Kotewall, however, considers that the area comprising the Kowloon foothills together with the hills behind as marked green in Enclosure 7, which is recommended in para. 121 for an European reservation, is far too large
for the purpose. In para 118 the Government is already asked to reserve
map,
for the same purpose
"the whole of the foothills surrounding and forming part of King's Park on the West, North and East side, and also the hilly area immediately adjoining such foothills;" and it is believed that fully 100 houses, with garden space around them, could be erected on this amphi- theatre. Even, if the eastern side of the area were required for Military Officers' quarters (eide para. 120), the remaining portion thereof would still seem to be sufficient to accommodate nearly all the British residents who have recently been or will soon be dislodged from their houses. Those who cannot be accommodated in this area could then go to the Kowloon foot- hills. But the area of the latter which is recommended to be reserved for the purpose is, to Mr. Kotewall's mind, unnecessarily large-larger, it appears from the than the whole of the developed portion of the Kowloon Peninsula which has taken about 80 years to reach its present size and prosperity. The total British population of the Colony, according to the Census taken in April, 1921, is about 8,000, the majority of whom are already fairly well housed in different parts of the Colony; and judging by the rate at which that population has grown during the last two decades, it seems unlikely that in the next two decades or so it would increase greatly out of proportion to the past rate, or to such a number as would actually need the enormous area proposed to be reserved for them. Apart from other considerations, it is economically unsound to detach a vast area of good building land from a locality which is rapidly developing, and to set it aside in order to meet the needs of a section of the community who requires Mr. Kotewall only a very small portion of it for a long time to come.
is therefore of the opinion that only such an area in that locality as will adequately meet the present needs of the British residents, should be reserved for them, with a reasonable margin of land allowed for recreation- grounds and for future expansion.
110. The question of the setting aside of reservations for different sections of the community has received the most anxious consideration of the Commissioners; and they are of opinion, after carefully studying the very special circumstances prevailing in this Colony, including its proximity to the
19
teeming populations of the adjacent disturbed provinces, who in times of disorder in China flock down to Hongkong in tens of thousands, that it is the bounden duty of the Government to make reservations, by means of demarcations of areas and special conditions of sale, in such areas for (a) British residents, and (b) permanent residents of other races respectively. (See also paragraphs 123 and 124).
111. As regards the British residents in the Kowloon Peninsula, the need for measures being urgently taken by the Government is manifest. The Sou- thern portion of the Peninsula, which up to about 10 years ago was happily free from the attentions of the land speculator, has lately been passing through a severe land boom which, unfortunately for the general body of tenants, who in the long run are the sufferers, still continues. The result of this boom has been that the properties in what is the centre of the district mainly inha- bited by Europeans, bave in the course of the last two years soared from about 2 dollars to over 7 dollars a square foot on sale prices; and at Yaumati to an even greater height.
* 112. This boom price of land in Kowloon forins a sharp contrast to the Hill Districts on the Island of Hongkong where land is being put up to auction by the Government at 12 cents a square foot, and where it is the custom for the applicant for the land not to be bid against, a custom which we recom- mend the Government to convert into a fixed and immutable fact by selling land in future in the IIill District to the first applicant without any auction whatever, because he has in most cases been to some trouble and expense in selecting the site).
113. The recent huge sale prices of land at Tsimshatsui where British residents have been accustomed to live for years past, and at Yaumati where Chinese residents of the middle and working classes make their homes, must be regarded as a positive disaster to the tenants; and this situation calls for immediate and drastic action on the part of the Government, in order to protect permanent residents who, surely, have the right in a British Colony to expect decent housing accommodation at a rent which bears some reason- abla proportion to their incomes, and to be protected from the economic and other consequences caused by the influx into the Colony of tens of thousands of Chinese from the mainland.
114. The question of the necessity of making European reservations has been pressed upon the Government by leading articles in all the four British newspapers in this Colony, and also in the speech of the Vice-Chairman at the last Annual General Meeting of the Kowloon Residents' Association (see Enclosure 6 containing printed extracts from those articles and that speech); and it has been shown that the question is not a racial question. It is primarily an economic question, but it is also one involving the health and reasonable comfort of Europeans living in a climate which is hot and trying in the summer.
115. European Reservations are also advocated in letters (38), (40) and (42) in Enclosure 1.
A side argument in favour of European Reservations is that, in times of strike or other internal commotions, an aggregation of British residents in one district renders it easier for them to take common action for the defence of the whole community against disorders.
* 110. We feel that such reservations are more especially necessary in Kowloon on economic grounds, having regard to the fact that the British residents in the Peninsula are, generally speaking, less wealthy and consequently less able to pay a high rent than those who live in the Hill District.
117. The position of affairs as regards housing accommolation for British residents at Kowloon is one of great gravity, because wealthy Chinese have bought up, during the last few months, at high prices, several rows of build- ings, situate in the District between Nathan Road on the West and Chatham
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