CO129-590-14 Newsletters from Sir Geoffrey Northcote- Governor of Hong Kong 21-4-1941 - 24-11-1941 — Page 24

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lants Istant

dus Wi tire

of the former is that at certain points

food stores, administration huts, including

first aid post and communal kitchen, should

be put up, around which would group huts for

dis-housed persons. Each dispersal area on

the Island relates to a particular portion

of the town of Victoria. The only real

problem in connection with these centres is

whe ther to erect more than is absolutely

necessary, i.e. food store, kitchen, administration

hut, etc., in view of the risk of the whole lot

being blown away by a typhoon. My present

inclination is to have no more than the

framework of the living sheds put up but to

keep the roofing and walling materials in

store nearby.

The other scheme was for dispersal away

from the Island. Naturally we shall want to

get as many of the Chinese population as we

can away from the Island before an attack on

it is launched. Selwyn-Clarke had proposed a

most ambitious scheme which had aimed at getting

300,000 people away and had 'coloured' this with

land settlement proposals which made it look

attractive superficially. Norton was far from

being convinced by the scheme and appointed a

committee under Grasett to go further into it.

That committee's report cut it down a lot but

a dvised the immediate inception of certain

agricultural settlements on the Island of Lan

Tao and on the mainland near Sai Kung in Shelter