Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1955-1956 — Page 25

40. The first clearance operation to be completed in northern Kowloon during the year took place in the area of the old Li Cheng Uk Village, between the Castle Peak and Tai Po Roads. Here, in November 1954 the Mobile Resettlement Unit had started on the clearance of 12,500 squatters from the site of the new Li Cheng Uk Resettlement Estate, the last 9,500 of whom were resettled in Tai Hang Tung Estate during April and early May, 1955. This operation, besides being the largest undertaken by the department, was also one of the most important; for it freed almost all the site of the new Li Cheng Uk Estate, whose 15 seven-storey buildings would provide accommodation for more than three times the number of squatters who had had to be cleared. At the same time this clearance removed the worst remaining fire risk in Kowloon by cutting in half a dense squatter area containing over 25,000

persons.

41. While the Li Cheng Uk Clearance was still in progress other teams from the Mobile Resettlement Unit went to Tsuen Wan, where squatters were cleared from land required for an enamelware factory; and to Kun Tong, beyond Kai Tak Airport, where squatters were holding up work on an important new reclamation. This latter clearance was unusual in that most of the 750 squatters lived on top of the municipal refuse dump, and earned a living by picking over the refuse after it had been dumped in shallow water from barges. The swarms of flies, the nauseous stench, and the crude shacks standing in foetid slime defy description. The clearance of this community was an operation of some delicacy: on the one hand imminent closure of the old refuse dump, and the prohibition of squatting near the new refuse dump at Gin Drinkers Bay, would deprive most families of their livelihood; on the other hand few of them seemed to have either the inclination or the skills required for other more normal kinds of work. It was eventually decided to offer them small granite cottages in Ngau Tau Kok Resettlement Area which had been built by the National Catholic Welfare Associa- tion, and for which a monthly rent of $10 would have to be paid, and paid regularly. The offer was accepted, though not willingly, and now, just over a year later, only two of the 205 families who moved to Ngau Tau Kok have left because of their

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