loose wood and tin sheeting, were confiscated. As mentioned in para- graph 13, the most thorough survey to date was carried out during the autumn. The survey showed that some 546,000 people were still living in tolerated squatter huts.
21. Not all the division's work is 'repressive'. An increasingly im- portant aspect of squatter control work is 'resiting'. Certain temporary resite areas, the forerunners of the transit centres and licensed areas to be set up under the policy enunciated in the White Paper, have been allocated to the Resettlement Department until they are needed for per- manent development, and here eligible persons are given sites measuring 16 square feet per adult on which they can build their own huts. Officers of the sub-division supervise construction work and the provision of minimum essential services such as latrines and a water supply, and also liaise with voluntary social welfare agencies. The sub-division. offered resites to 50,492 people during the year. These comprised 3,178 victims of disasters, 12,377 rooftop squatters from demolished tenements, 25,890 tenants evicted from condemned buildings, 1,117 persons cleared to form firelanes in squatter areas, 34 compassionate cases, 5,351 home- less persons remaining on cleared sites after resettlement operations, and 2,505 squatters of other categories. The most striking change compared with the previous year is the increase of nearly 72% in the number of people resited, largely accounted for by the fourfold increase in the number of tenants evicted from dangerous buildings, and to a lesser extent by the doubling of the number of rooftop squatters from de- molished tenements. Two Asst. Resettlement Officers are employed exclusively on processing the resiting of people from condemned or re- developed tenements.
22. The remaining list of duties performed by the Squatter Control sub-division is a varied one. There is a great deal of case-work and investigation, and Area Officers are often asked to settle disputes and complaints among squatters. They are required to stop interlopers from taking up residence in huts which have been screened for resettlement, and they play a part in the procedure of clearing an area during a resettlement operation. They assist in the registration of victims of natural disasters, arrange temporary shelter in transit camps and then arrange for resiting, if necessary. This can be a considerable task, partic- ularly in a typhoon year such as 1964-65 when over 1,900 huts were damaged or destroyed, and consequently attracted grants from the Community Relief Trust Fund which had to be processed by officers of the sub-division.
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