The consequence of this haphazard method was that during two years of clearing the Social Welfare Office found that they had been screening people three, four, and even five times.
However by dint of continuous action they did succeed in gradually moving on the squatters so that by the end of 1950 most of Kowloon south of Boundary Street, except for the Hung Hom area, had been com- pletely cleared, and on Hong Kong Island all of the area to the west of the race course. Settlements of the Island were confined to the area east of Happy Valley to Shaukiwan.
As can be imagined the speed with which this removal was going on and the effects on the people were far from satisfactory, and it was then decided that a definite programme should be promulgated and adhered to. One of the last moves under the old process took place when some 1100 families were moved from the hillside at North Point in order to make room for the land required by the Hong Kong Electric Co., Ltd., for building their workmen's quarters. Even then, these squatters were told, un- officially, that they could move to Chai Wan, an area of hillside below Island Road, a few hundred yards above Shaukiwan Village. Most of them were quite satisfied with being told where they could go and they settled themselves into this area in quite a reasonable fashion using their old sticks and galvanized iron sheets, etc., to rebuild their struc- tures, but placed them a little more systematically and with more space between so as to minimize the fire risk. They also tried to maintain the area in better sanitary condition and formed a little welfare associa- tion of their own to help them in this and other communal problems. This resettlement proved quite quite successful.
It was in January and February 1951 that Government decided that more definite and constructive action should be taken in the matter of squatter resettlement and Mr. Wakefield was given the task of making a survey and drawing up a plan of action. By now, it was estimated that there were some 250,000 squatters occupying ap- proximately 60 acres of land in Hong Kong and about 350 acres in Kowloon. The land in Hong Kong was practically all Crown Land, but in Kowloon most of it was either
private agricultural land or in the private agricultural land or in the odd case, private building land, but odd case, private building land, but in no case had recognition been given for building on that land, in other words, they were
were illegal structures built without the approval of the Building Authority.
In Kowloon the matter was further Kowloon the matter was further complicated by the fact that all kinds of shops and many types of industries had been set up in these shanty towns. The nature of the materials manufactured and goods stored in creased the fire dangers and very often constituted an additional menace to health, For this reason the standard of sanitary and hygienic conditions in Kowloon were far lower than on the Island, bad though they were there. Matters were fur- they were there. Matters were fur- ther complicated by a big fire which in January 1950 broke out in the Kowloon City squatters area and which rendered some fifteen or twenty thousand people homeless. As a result of this fire, Government set up a Relief Committee, reserved
an
area of ground for them at Homuntin which included the site of a discontinued and disused Sanitary Department graveyard, and within a very short time the Com- mittee had built some two hundred houses of simple, economic, but fireproof design. Most of the oc- cupants of these houses were fire victims, though other rather needy people were also put in, since by the time the houses were completed most of the fire victims seemed to have found themselves other places to squat. At this time, January 1950, there was not a single squatter in the hills at Homuntin, but as soon as this settlement was started, establishments grew up like mush- rooms and soon over three thousand huts were spread over the area. Since the district was semi-controlled by the Sanitary Department in that cleansing cleansing coolies went through regularly each day to collect refuse and spray with Gammaxene to keep down flies, conditions were appreci- ably better than at some of the very vile areas in other parts of Kowloon.
At Kowloon City, within a few months, the site of the fire was built over again with wooden huts, and a second fire broke out in November 1951 which devastated some seven- teen acres and involved about three thousand huts housing some twenty
to
twenty-five thousand people. This time Government took im- mediate action to stop any further squatting in that area and it was just
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then that the general recommenda- tion of Mr. Wakefield's report was accepted by Government.
The recommendation was, rough- ly, that Government should set aside for resettlement purposes certain areas to be divided into two classes. The first class would comprise dis- tricts which would be conveniently located and in which houses of standard types would be built on previously prepared and set out sites, with Government to form access roads, cut drain channels, provide latrines and lay water piping. The people who moved into these areas would hold the land on annual permit from the Crown at a rate to be determined, probably about $60.00 per year. The second class resettlement area would be mostly in outlying districts, but here the residents could use their own old materials to rebuild, only the ar- rangement being controlled so as to reduce fire risks.
In addition, recommendations were included concerning the staff required to control
these areas, methods of clearing existing and de- veloping new areas, assistance to be given to squatters, and the revision of
Crown Land leases and the Building Ordinance to enable em- ployees of Government, public utility companies and others to obtain per- manent housing under favourable conditions.
In January 1952, the Emergency Regulations Ordinance (Chapter 241) and cited as the Emergency (Reset- tlement Areas) Regulations 1952 was passed which enabled the sug- gestions made in the report to be carried out.
The Regulations
The Regulations are very straight- forward and need little explanation. They give the Urban Council power to set aside pieces of Crown Land as resettlement areas, to grant permits to approved persons for the erection of buildings in these areas, to charge fees and impose conditions for such permits, and in the event of a breach of those conditions or failure to pay the fees charged, to evict the offender and demolish his hut without com- pensation. The Council has dis- cretion to waive a breach of conditions and, in cases where the building can be taken over by another approved settler, to pay compensation. The Council may also make Rules (which must be confirmed by the Legislative Council in the same way as Urban Council
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