Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1954-1955 — Page 64

these reasons the persons who live in these areas, whilst the majority are law-abiding folk and potentially good citizens, lie virtually outside the scope of the administration. They pay no taxes, they buy their food in illegal shops and markets, they may work in an illegal factory, their children probably go to an illegal school if they to school at all, and their home is in an illegal building. It is not to be expected that these people will in general have any proper understanding of the privileges and obligations of citizenship.

73. These are the persons who are becoming the direct tenants of Government as the resettlement programme proceeds. These are the persons who, if the resettlement estates are to be successful, have to be assisted to build up orderly communities; they have to learn self-respect and respect for the rights of their neighbours; they have to be taught to make the best of the simple accommodation provided, to forget the defeatist attitude towards dirt and disease which pervades the squatter areas, to make their small contribution to the Colony's revenue and to take advantage of such social services as the Colony is able to offer to her people. They are the new citizens. A random group of ten persons in a Kowloon street probably contains at least one of them.

74. The taxpayer is investing $50 million in the resettle- ment programme and it is the responsibility of the department to safeguard this investment and to ensure that it pays the dividends, as the years go by, which the taxpayer is entitled to expect. Having regard to the origin of these settlers it sounds like a task which would defy the ingenuity of any administrative machine; and it must be admitted that the events of the year under review did more to emphasize the difficulties than to point the way to their solution. But there is one factor which is favourable, namely the basic characteristics of the Can- tonese people. The people are always reasonable, always good- humoured. They may not be educated but they are civilized. The task of educating them to live together in crowded conditions, to pay their rent promptly and gradually to improve their standards of hygiene, their respect for themselves and each

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