Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1955-1956 — Page 16

decorative beadwork, tailoring, matchbox-making, carpentry and the sorting of plastic scrap. There were also four squatter

schools.

23. This then was the picture which emerged as the time drew near for the department to clear the first part of the Sheung Li Uk squatter area, for the land was urgently needed for additional seven-storey resettlement buildings, for tenement housing, and for a school. The picture was essentially a com- posite one, compiled from many sources. The framework was built up from an examination of air photographs and from visits by senior officers of the department. To the framework was added information gathered over the years by the Police, the Fire Brigade, and by the Crown Lands Office of the Public Works Department. More information was obtained from a prelimin- ary survey undertaken by the department in August 1955; this included a rough count of the population, and an analysis of the many different trades and businesses carried on in the area. At this stage it was possible to estimate with a fair degree of accuracy the amount of resettlement accommodation that would be required, and hence the approximate date by which the clearance could be undertaken. It was also possible to plan the clearance of cultivators, the resumption of private lots and the cancellation of temporary Crown land permits. In October 1955 the final details of the picture were obtained by a com- prehensive screening survey of all persons living in the area to be cleared. A later chapter in this report describes the work carried out by the Screening Section of the department during the year, and also the techniques employed in screening. For the present it will suffice if the reader likens the task of screening to the taking of a census, for screening provides the department with the necessary statistical base for all its dealings with individual families, first as squatters awaiting resettlement, and then as settlers living in a Resettlement Estate or Area.

24. In mid-November 1955, with screening completed, and with new seven-storey blocks for the reception of the squatters receiving their finishing touches, the actual clearance operation began. Like all orthodox clearance and resettlement operations it was carried out by the Mobile Resettlement Unit.

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This