Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1959-1960 — Page 50

Crown Land or land held on lease or permit from the Crown, and also any cave or tunnel which is occupied without authority.

100. In October 1954 a series of aerial photographs was taken of the areas patrolled and a public announcement was made that no new squatter structures would be tolerated and that any discovered would be immediately demolished without any offer of resettlement being made to the occupants. Action has been taken against any structures built on the ground after that date, Structures on tenement rooftops in the urban area were not controlled until November 1956, when a survey was made of all such structures then existing; action is now taken against any rooftop structures not listed in that survey.

101. In November 1959 a fresh survey was completed of all ground squatter structures; it was found that there were some 50,000 tolerated structures remaining with an approximate population of 500,000 squatters. This survey was the first to be undertaken since 1955 and it has acted as a useful corrective to the estimates of squatters made in recent years, which have now been found to be very much too low. At the same time it must be emphasized that the population of the squatter areas is continually fluctuating and that the figures obtained from the survey are only valid in detail for the date of the survey. The Squatter Control staff takes action against all new squatter structures detected but it does not control squatters; there is a constant tendency for the number of squatters to grow, both by natural increase and by the infiltration of new squatters into existing tolerated huts, and it is inevitable that considerably more than the 500,000 squatters now recorded will have to be resettled before all the remaining squatter huts çan be cleared.

102. The main purpose of the survey was to record accurately details of the structures remaining, both for statistical purposes and to assist the work of the Squatter Control staff. This staff is divided into four sections: two deal with all ground squatters in Kowloon up to the New Territories boundary, the railway line forming the boundary between the two sections; a third section deals with all rooftop squatters in Kowloon; and the fourth section deals with all squatters on Hong Kong Island, whether on rooftops or on the ground. Each of these sections is under the control of an Assistant Resettlement Officer and there is a fifth Assistant Resettlement Officer assisting the Land Bailiff who is in charge of the whole division. The Kowloon patrols were formerly extended to Tsuen Wan and Sham Tseng but from 16th November, 1959, the

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