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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

Hong Kong has shown herself to be forward in industrial progress because of the incentive to "get rich quick". We need town planners with the same incentive to visualize Hong Kong with a new look. We are 20 years behind the times in housing and transport. I therefore

move:

That this Council request Government urgently to consider and investigate the possibility of utilizing the nearby islands for the resettlement of Hong Kong squatters, as an alternative to their resettlement in the outlying areas of Kowloon, provided that they are served by cheap and efficient ferry services.

MR. B. A. BERNACCHI :—Mr. Chairman, I thank Mrs. ELLIOTT for asking me to second this motion. Mrs. ELLIOTT has made a very moving address in proposing this motion and it is only necessary for me to say a few words. Outside Kowloon lies the mainland part of the New Territories; these areas can only gain access to Kowloon (or Hong Kong) by relatively few roads where traffic is already most congested. The alternative that is proposed is to erect resettlement estates on nearby islands and to serve the nearby islands with cheap but efficient ferry services both to Hong Kong and Kowloon. In fact I would go further and suggest that more use is made of ferry services so that they do not just go from one place to another cross-harbour but, in Hong Kong, take the place of the underground tube services in London. I do not know where London would be but for the tube services to-day. On the other hand, I personally think that to start underground services in Hong Kong at this time would simply not answer the question because the construction of them is too slow to meet the pressing needs of the public. By expanding the ferry services we can use the outlying islands, inhabited or uninhabited at present, to resettle people from Hong Kong and Kowloon, and the islands suitable for the purpose are several hundreds, not several tens. By so doing we can relieve further con- gestion on the roads and the result will be, if not to eliminate the congestion, at least to lessen it considerably.

I congratulate Mrs. ELLIOTT on this idea and I support it in full.

MR. LI YIU-BOR: Mr. Chairman, I rise to speak on the motion moved by Mrs. ELLIOTT. I have no doubt, Sir, that in moving the motion Mrs. ELLIOTT has the best interests of the squatters at heart. In thinking over the whole problem, however, I came across a few questions which I should like to put forward for your consideration.

First, would the squatters like to be resettled on the islands? According to my experience, most of them do not cherish the idea of being resettled even across the harbour. When some squatters in Shau Kei Wan were offered resettlement in Kwun Tong last year, I received many complaints from them, and I am sure other Members of this

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Council have received similar complaints. I suggest that a sample survey of 50 to 100 squatter families in Hong Kong be taken to find out whether they would go to the nearby islands in preference to estates in Hong Kong or the outlying areas of Kowloon. I am afraid that when squatters in Hong Kong are eventually offered resettlement in these islands, there will be a big public outcry against the Urban Councillors in general, and Mrs. ELLIOTT and me in particular-she as the acknowledged champion of the squatters and I as the somewhat rather unfortunate and less outstanding Chairman of the Resettlement Manage- ment Select Committee. (Laughter).

Unless

Secondly, can squatters get employment on the islands? industrialists find it economical to operate their factories there, I am afraid the answer must be in the negative. These squatters must then travel by ferry to their places of work. Let us say that in an estate of 60,000 settlers 5,000 have to go to work by ferry. Is it possible for any ferry company, or even Government, to mobilize a huge fleet of 12 ferries to carry these settlers to their work from one single island every morning? I think the total number of ferries required will be equal to the number of ferries for one single island multiplied by the number of islands in which there are resettlement estates. I think Mr. WATSON will be quite interested in these statistics.

Thirdly, will the motion expedite or retard our resettlement programme? Speaking as a layman, I can envisage that in view of the engineering difficulties in laying submarine water pipes and in site forma- tion, it will take a very long time to complete an estate-and this delay might defeat our target of resettling 150,000 people every year.

Fourthly, does the motion suggest a wise use of taxpayers' money on resettlement? I am subject to correction, but I feel that building an estate on an island will cost much more than building one in Hong Kong or Kowloon, taking into consideration every financial aspect of the scheme.

Lastly, will not the squatters concerned think that the Urban Council, or the Resettlement Department, regard them as outcasts of the local community whom we turn into Robinson Crusoes as good riddance or as a matter of convenience?

Mr. Chairman, these then are our doubts about the motion and we would like to have a detailed analysis of the problem by our experts before we can lend it our full support.

MR. BERNACCHI: Mr. Chairman, on a point of order, I would remind the last speaker that the motion before the Council is, in effect, to consider and investigate the possibility of utilizing the nearby islands.

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