Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1956-1957 — Page 53

(ii) otherwise than in accordance with the terms of the lease or permit on land held on lease or permit from the Crown,

(iii) without the authority of the lessee or permittee on

land held on lease or permit from the Crown,

(iv) without the approval of the building authority in

cases where such approval is required, or

(v) by a squatter;

(b) any cave or tunnel occupied by a squatter or other person

without lawful authority.

103. The term 'new squatter huts' in the preceding para- graph means any unlawful structure erected since October 1954, the date on which air photographs of the patrol areas were taken and a public announcement made that all new squatter huts would be summarily demolished after that date without the occupants being offered resettlement. Those built before Octo- ber 1954 are not demolished without the occupants being offered alternative accommodation in a resettlement area or estate or an alternative site on which to rebuild.

104. For this work the Squatter Control Section has three Land Bailiffs, one being responsible for Hong Kong Island, one for the eastern part of Kowloon and New Kowloon as far as Lyemun, and one for the western part of Kowloon and New Kowloon and the Kwai Chung and Tsuen Wan districts in the New Territories up to the 10th milestone on the Castle Peak Road. Each Land Bailiff's district is divided into several patrol areas, each of which is the responsibility of one Area Officer who has under him three or four patrolmen. The ideal is to spot new structures while they are still in course of erection when they can be summarily demolished without anyone having to be evicted. If the new unlawful structure is already occupied, as more often happens, the Area Officer serves a notice on the occupants requiring them to remove the structure by a certain date. If this action is not taken by the occupants it is then necessary for the staff of the Squatter Control Section to demolish the structure and to confiscate the materials.

105. In December 1956 three Demolition Units were set up, one being attached to each Land Bailiff, to carry out all demoli- tion work which had formerly been done by the patrols. This

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