0003230
G.F. 323
CONFIDENTIAL
5-
Departmental Action Within the Walled City.
5.
(a)
The 1960 Ad Hoc Committee Recommendations.
A detailed plan gradually to increase Government control over the Kowloon Walled City was recommended by an ad hoc Committee in 1960. The proposals, for two phase action, provided in Phase I for a limited immediate or early increase in departmental action within the Walled City. Phase II, for later action subject to detailed consideration, provided more extensive Government control over the Walled City. Action in accordance with Phase I of the ad hoc Committee recommendations proceeded smoothly until 1962, when a squatter survey in the area in connection with a resettlement scheme provoked opposition. This culminated in a C.P.G. protest in January 1963. Thereafter policy remained as in Phase I of the ad hoc Committee recommendations, except that no further squatter surveys were undertaken.
Current and Proposed Departmental Action.
(B)
(i)
(ii)
Police Police activity in the Walled City is the some as everywhere else except that certain licensing laws are not enforced. This is not satisfactory from the Police point of view but a change of approach may not be justified and in any case crime and vice are controlled. It is not considered that Police policy in the Walled City has any effect on the Police task elsewhere.
Fire Services Department :- Normal action is taken regarding offences discovered as a result of fire, and legislation regarding the storage of dangerous goods is enforced. The Department takes all normal measures to put fires out but does not carry out preventive measures. But the most significant change, since the 1960 recommendations, has been the development of the Walled City from a fairly typical squatter area to one containing a considerable number of multi-storey buildings. Most of these are
of sub-standard construction and lack any form of fire protection. The lack of access roads makes it impossible to get fire appliances close to many of the buildings. This is particularly dangerous with regard to the schools and although it is considered that no change of Fire Services general policy is practicable, it may be
necessary to take special measures with regard to schools.
(iii) Urban Services Department :- The U.S.D. provides
daily collection and removal of refuse and of nightsoil, maintenance of public latrines, removal of the dead, pest control, daily chlorination of wells, investigation of infectious diseases. No food premises are licensed and no health legislation enforced. Residents are generally co-operative in health measures, (e.g. responding well to inoculation campaigns), but the area nonetheless remains a
CONFIDENTIAL
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