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scope of our functions in certain quarters. We were frequently asked to prohibit landlords from raising rent or giving notice to quit, or to arbitrate between landlord and tenant. In one case a tenant who had been evicted on a magistrate's warrant desired us to intervene, and in another a tenant who had been an unsuccessful defendant in an action for recovery of possession in the Supreme Court.
8. We also received evidence from the Government Assessor of Rates, the Executive Engineer in charge of the Buildings Ordinance Office, and various unofficial witnesses. We considered in addition written cases submitted by tenants, and written arguments, tables of figures and extracts from account books submitted to us by a number of prominent house property owners.
9. By the evening of the 21st March, 1938, we felt we had progressed sufficiently to justify us in notifying in the columns of the press, and at all Police Stations in Victoria and Kowloon, that we would not receive further complaints after the 23rd March, 1938, and such notification was given accordingly on the 22nd March, 1938.
10. We had hoped on and after the 24th March, 1988, to devote our time to analysing the evidence and information we had obtained, and to drafting this Report, but a delay was caused by circumstances which we desire to explain. We requested the Secretary of the Kowloon Residents Association, which had before our appoint- ment inserted in the newspapers an advertisement incorporating a questionnaire whereby tenants were invited to ventilate their grievances, to appear before us. The Secretary to the Association duly appeared before us on the morning of the 14th March, 1938, when he informed us that the Association had up to that date receiv- ed about 130 replies to its questionnaire. We requested him to ask his Committee to consider the correspondence, and to select for us those cases in which investi- gation seemed most necessary. The Association held a general meeting on the 22nd March, and on the afternoon of the 23rd March we received a deputation representative of its members who informed us that on account of the fact that their advertisement had contained the words "All replies will be treated con- fidentially they did not feel at liberty to disclose particulars of any complaints they had received. The Association had not investigated any of the complaints. They stated that the number of complaints received up to and including the 19th March, 1938, was 321 and that they did not propose to entertain any further complaints. They requested us to extend our enquiry, so far as the complaints that they had received were concerned, until the 26th March, 1938, in order that they might find time to inform their complainants by means of press advertisements that those who desired their cases to be investigated by the Commission, should com- municate directly with us. In view of the large number of complaints received by the Association, and the startling increases of rent alleged to have been imposed in a summary presented to us by the deputation, which in six cases were said to exceed 150%, we felt that we had no option but to agree to the request.
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11. We sat on the morning and afternoon of Saturday the 26th March, 1938, to deal exclusively with the Kowloon Residents Association's cases. Owing to an unfortunate error in a comment in a Chinese newspaper on the Association's advertisement, for which the Association was in no way to blame, the Chinese public were led to believe that we were prepared to hear all cases, and considerable con- fusion resulted. We endeavoured to ascertain which of the many applicants had in fact applied to the Association before the 19th March, 1938. Some had not complained to the Association at all; others had not complained before the 19th March, 1938; others were not resident in Kowloon and others were tenants whom we had already seen or whose written complaints we had already considered. All these we declined to hear. Those tenants who had actually written to the Associa- tion, as distinct from merely filling in its questionnaire, had been notified by its Secretary that they should report to us, and we interviewed all those in possession of his letter. In addition, we heard what appeared to be the more outstanding cases. In no case did we discover any such huge increase as was alleged in the summary
given us by the Committee's deputation, but we must admit the possibility that some cases may have been overlooked in the prevailing confusion.
12. In spite of our endeavours to make our inquiry as widely known as possible, in which we received some assistance from the staff of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, many tenants who were in a position to complain forthwith delayed writing to us until after we had ceased to entertain fresh cases. The principle underlying the maxim" vigilantibus non dormientibus æquitas subvenit” may justly be regarded as applicable to such cases.
13. We have decided not to publish the evidence which we received, some of which was confidential, in the shape of appendices to this Report, and the only appendices annexed hereto are Appendix 1, Appendix II and Appendix III, repre- senting respectively a table showing the decrease in vacant accommodation, a graph illustrating the same decrease, and figures relating to the house construction now in progress. The points from the evidence, both oral and written, upon which our findings are based will be found incorporated in the body of the Report, and the notes of oral evidence, the written evidence, the original memoranda and corre- spondence and a file of press cuttings have been communicated to Government.
Our Report is divided under the following headings:
14.
1. Preliminary.
2. The Reasons for, and the Extent of, the Rise in Rents.
3. Landlords' Return on Capital.
4. Evictions and Alternative Accommodation.
5. Possible Solutions.
6. Miscellaneous and Conclusion.
and a separate part of this Report is devoted to each heading.
15. Finally, we desire to place on record our appreciation of the courtesy of the Honourable Secretary for Chinese Affairs in allowing us to make use of the services of Mr. Lai Chi-cheung as interpreter and Mr. Chung King-pui as translator. Our thanks are also due to the Chairman of the Urban Council for permitting us to make use of the Urban Council Chamber, and to the Honourable Director of Public Works for subsequently permitting us to complete this Report in his depart- mental board room. We wish to express our thanks to the Honourable Mr. R. H. Kotewall, C.M.G., LL.D., for collecting and forwarding information to us; to the Land Officer for certain data as to mortgages; to the Government Assessor of Rates for providing us with figures and assisting us in referring to his records; to the Execu- tive Engineer in charge of the Buildings Ordinance Office for compiling certain statistics and assisting us with an appendix; to the Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court for particulars relating to distraints and to Miss R. Bercovitch, Mrs. A. Osmund, Mr. Lai Chi-cheung and Mr. Chung King-pui. To Miss Bercovitch and Mrs. Osmund for sterling work as typists and stenographers, and to Mr. Lai and Mr. Chung for equally good work as interpreter and translator respectively.
PART II,
The Reasons for. and the Extent of, the Rise in Rents.
1. Under our terms of reference we were to have regard to the rise and fall of rents during the last ten years, but only very few tenants were able to give us a continuous history for so long a period. This fact is of great significance, and goes to the root of the present situation of tenants in the Colony.
2. A wealth of evidence was furnished to prove that owners of house property were the victims of a disastrous slump during the years 1933 to 1937. No doubt there were during the last ten years cases of speculative building in which men of
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