Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1954-1955 — Page 51

come resettlement, resettlement as a whole, if it was to be as rapid and effective as the situation demanded, must be related to the circumstances of squatters as a whole. Apart from the need to avoid the use of force and this has been a point of honour with the department since its formation-a squatter is normally an ordinary citizen with his own difficulties and his own point of view. If these difficulties, and this point of view, are not taken into account, squatters cannot be cleared rapidly and in large numbers.

59. Experience in previous years had already shown that Government must take resettlement to the squatters rather than expect them to come running in obedience to a remote instruction couched in legal terms. If a squatter were allowed to feel bewildered he would become resentful and would be easy prey for the irresponsible agitator. Agitation, and the resistance it might inspire, would put a stop, whatever the technical rights of the matter, to rapid squatter clearance. And, since rapid clearance was the object, every clearance must be so handled that each family felt that due regard was being had for its own particular problems. Full use was made of loudspeakers, in- formation leaflets and direct access to experienced officers; if the menfolk did not come home till six then the staff must be on the spot at seven. Above all it was essential that clearances should be completed on schedule without resort to police action. The department took resettlement to the squatters and it quickly became the rule for hundreds of huts to be demolished voluntari- ly in the presence only of the constable on the beat.

60. The probable scale of clearance and resettlement operations presented problems of considerable magnitude. Ten days after the department was formed, a start was made on the clearance of 3,500 squatters from Kwun Yam Hill, overlooking Wuhu Street in Hung Hom, in order that the hill could be demolished to make way for 1,300 low cost flats to be built by the Hong Kong Housing Society. This clearance took over four months and was completed only after a great deal of unsatis- factory and time-consuming improvisation. But in the event of Government approving a large multi-storey building programme

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