Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1956-1957 — Page 10

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These recommendations were accepted by the Govern- ment and Mr. D. R. Holmes, a Cadet Officer, was appointed Commissioner for Resettlement in April, 1954. Later that month the staff of the Resettlement Division of the Urban Services Department were taken over and the squatter patrols were transferred from the Public Works Department. The screening teams from the Social Welfare Office joined about six weeks later. Additional administrative staff were appointed and by early June, 1954 an effective unified organization was in being.

12. The new department's immediate task was to resettle the many thousands of Shek Kip Mei fire victims still in huts on the streets. This was soon accomplished because of the speed with which the Public Works Department erected two-storey temporary buildings on the fire site. Within a few months not only was accommodation for 36,000 persons provided in this manner but sketch plans had been produced for eight six-storey resettlement buildings which were also to be erected at Shek Kip Mei.

13. No sooner had the Shek Kip Mei fire victims living on the streets been resettled, however, than another serious fire occurred on the 22nd July, this time at Tai Hang Tung, north of the Boundary Street Sports Ground. Once more the streets were full of fire victims and once more immediate action was taken to level the fire site for redevelopment. By now sketch plans and working drawings for the multi-storey buildings at Shek Kip Mei were ready and it was therefore decided that as many similar buildings as possible should also be erected on the Tai Hang Tung fire site which was fortunately an almost level valley bottom.

14. As a result of the decision to spend public funds on multi-storey resettlement buildings and also as a result of the fact that it had been found possible to build accommodation on the Tai Hang Tung fire site for about 6,000 more persons. than the number of fire victims, a planned programme for the clearance of squatter areas became a practical proposition for the first time. This spare accommodation at Tai Hang Tung was used to initiate the clearance of two important sites-one of 7 acres south of the Tai Hang Tung fire site (for an extension

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