Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1954-1955 — Page 47

hire-purchase arrangements. There are many other variations on the same theme in this area, but the salient fact is that Kowloon cannot afford to give up indefinitely 150 acres of central land for the resettlement of former squatters at a density of little more than 150 persons to the acre. On the other hand any plan for re-development will clearly involve considerable difficulty and expense, and this was one of the long-term problems which were beginning to be examined at the end of the year under review. Similar problems, though on a smaller scale, exist in the Chai Wan resettlement area, situated beyond Shaukiwan, and in other temporary resettle- ment areas. These areas are listed in Appendix II which gives the population figures at 1st April, 1954 and 31st March, 1955.

CHAPTER X

CLEARANCE AND RESETTLEMENT OPERATIONS

56. When the department came into being in April, 1954, the only operation then in progress was the resettlement of the victims of the great Shek Kip Mei fire of Christmas Day, 1953, over 50,000 in number; for this a sort of inter-departmental organization had been built up by the Urban Services Depart- ment, the Social Welfare Office and the Police Force, and this was already running smoothly. Normal clearance operations had been brought to a standstill. This was a blessing in disguise, for it gave the new staff an opportunity to think out and build up an operational organization equal to the task ahead, and especially to the heavy demands which would arise should the Government decide to proceed with a large multi-storey building programme for the purpose of general squatter resettlement.

57. It was clear that neither changes in policy nor the creation of a new department were in themselves sufficient to ensure that squatters could be cleared and resettled successfully on the scale and at the pace envisaged. The decision to build resettlement accommodation at the public expense and to let it at a moderate rent would no doubt enormously simplify the process

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