TNAG-0445-FCO40-510-Discussions-with-Sir-Murray-MacLehose--Governor-of-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 172

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Walled City

[11 JUNE 1974]

HOUSE OF LORDS

Tuesday, 11th June, 1974

[Continuation of OFFICIAL REPORT from col. 462.]

WALLED CITY OF KOWLOON

9.55 p.m.

LORD KENNET rose to ask Her Majesty's Government what is the den- sity of persons per acre in the Walled City of Kowloon in the Colony of Hong Kong. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I think that many of your Lordships will have been to Hong Kong and those who have not will know the map pretty well. I should like to ask you to imagine | yourselves on Hong Kong Island. You then cross the water to the leased territory of Kowloon a very large city containing a million or more people. In the middle of this city you come to one special enclave, which is the subject of my Ques- tion to-night; that is, the Walled City of Kowloon, It is the old centre of Kowloon. It was a Chinese town when Britain leased their Territory in 1898. It consists of 61 acres only. I set this out in advance because I want the House to be quite clear that I am talking about a very small part of Kowloon, which is itself only a part of Hong Kong--I repeat, 64 acres only.

The first problem in coming to the Walled City of Kowloon is to find the way in. The old medieval walls have gone --they were demolished by the Japanese in 1943-but it is visibly a separate and distinct enclave. You walk round the outside; you cannot find a way in at all; and then at last you realise there are certain alleyways which lead in, and they are 2 feet or 3 feet wide. So, if you have a companion, you get into Indian file and walk in. Throughout the 61 | acres, the streets or alleys are nowhere more than 3 feet wide. Mostly they are 2 feet wide, in some places they are only 18 inches wide. This in itself is perhaps not too remarkable in an Asian slum, but what is remarkable about the Walled City of Kowloon is that the buildings standing on these 18 inch-wide alleys are 10, 11 and even 13 storeys high. No wheeled vehicle can get in there--not a lorry, not a care or even a bicycle. Nothing can get

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of Kowloon in except a pedestrian. The alleyways Down the are unpaved and of earth. middle of each runs an open drain with the sewage running down it, because the site is on a slope; and in the sewage you see very large rats.

The ground floors on either side of you as you walk through the Walled City contain many factories: small spaces. roughly lit. It would not be true to say that the standards in these factories are deficient: the very concept of a standard in a factory comes from another world. You see in them people weaving with looms, doing light engineering, making metal goods or carpentry, or engaged in the preparation of food. The noise, the darkness, the dirt and the dust in those factories are totally unregulated. There is no law to apply to them and the conditions one can see there are beyond description.

There is water in the Walled City of Kowloon. It comes from two sources: either it is brought from municipal standpipes outside the Walled City- that is good water, and it is carried in buckets to the 61 acres of the Walled City or else there are illegal wells dug directly under the houses. These wells reach the water-table quite soon, and of course the water there lies directly under, and entirely unprotected from, the open sewers which run down the alleyways. There is light and electric power in the Walled City of Kowloon, How is it obtained? It is stolen from the municipal mains supply outside the city by illegal connections, and wherever you walk, above your head in the alleyways there

festoons and

of naked swags

stolen cables carrying the

63

arc electric electricity.

11

་་

My question is: What is the density of population in the Walled City? The official figure for the total number of inhabitants in the 6 acres is 27.000 people. This figure was obtained by the municipal authorities-- as they will tell you themselves if you ask them-by the | technique of walking around counting the windows and reckoning four, six, or behind eight people

cach window depending on how far it is from the next. In

same practice, those

municipal authorities will tell you-and I do not believe that this figure is disputed by the Government here in London-that the true population of the Walled City is

1

K