Report by Mr. Chan Afook. ·
Hon. J. M. PRICE, Surveyor General.
SIR,-In accordance with your request that I should state exactly what offers were made to the pigkeepers at Kennedy Town of other sites where to move to, I beg to state that in literal interpretation of your offer I communicated to them as follows:-
Sites at Kau-lung-wan, just above Mr. Sharp's lot.
Sites at Mong-kok in Kowloon.
Sites at Tai-kok-tsui.
And to one of the men, who was a toothpowder maker, you offered a special site at Hoi Chau Wan.
It was arranged that they were all to go and inspect the sites offered and to come back within seven days to report whether they accepted them. I never heard that any of them ever came back.
12th September, 1886.
(Signed),
CHAN AFOOK.
Minute by His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government.
A reference to C. S. O. 2,031 of 1884 will show that in 1884 these persons were allowed to settle on this spot of ground on the express condition that they were to be there for six months only, and that in the meantime they were to look about for some other locality. They were also to keep their pigsties in proper order.
More than two years have elapsed since then, and in spite of repeated warnings they have never taken any steps to choose another site, and from the manner in which they have recently extended their huts, it would appear that they have made up their minds fully not to move from their present sites.
The site is now required, by Government for building a Police Station, and further, their pigsties have for some time past become a serious sanitary nuisance. The breach of faith appears to me to have been entirely on the part of these squatters and not of the Government, and I can see no reason why they have any claim on the sympathy of the Protector of Chinese. They pay no squatter's licence and have absolutely no right whatever to be where they are. They might with equal right squat down in the Government Gardens, on the Cricket Field, or on the Chinese Recreation Ground. They might all be punished for keeping pigsties in a filthy state.
A message came up yesterday from the Sanitary Inspector that they are now willing to remove at once to Mong-kok in Kowloon. They should be required to take out squatter's licences, as if they do not do so they will be liable to be removed from the new site.
Whether the Surveyor General has acted legally in removing these men without applying to a Magistrate is another question on which the Acting Attorney General may be asked to advise. But it is clear that they had to be removed and that they had sufficient notice to move given over and over again.
The question whether Chinese should be allowed to come over from the mainland and settle without leave or licence wherever they choose will be con- sidered by the Land Commission. It is a very important question, and I have asked the General Commanding the Troops for his opinion for the information of the Land Commission. Hongkong is a quasi-Military Station, and the question has to be considered what would have to be done in case of war, besides the im- portant point of self-preservation from disease which might be occasioned through the agglomeration of persons without any sanitary precautions.
Since 15 to 20 years ago some very stringent orders about squatters were issued by the Secretary of State to the Governinent of Mauritius, and I think also to the Governors of the West Indian Islands. I am informed that no persons are permitted to come into Gibraltar from Spain and settle down without special per- mission.
Pending the report of the Land Commission care should be taken to prevent any more Chinese from settling without permission on Crown Land, and instruc- tions must be given to the Police to report all cases that come to their notice espe- cially in the Districts. Mention to be made of all such in the morning reports.
6th September, 1886.
(Signed), W. H. MARSH.
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