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referring to the fire in the Connaught Road Central District on January 12 that took 10 lives. It was reported in the Press that men of the USD, out on their normal early-morning chores, saw smoke emitting from the building, immediately raised the alarm, awoke unsuspecting sleepers, and then actively co-operated in helping to contain the flames with their street-washing vehicles.
The men could have turned their backs on the incident, but in a city reported to be selfish, they showed a willing sense of personal involvement and civic responsibility that deserves praise. My friends in the kaifong associations (particularly those in the Central Kaifong Association) and the multi-storey buildings associations have asked me to bring this matter up today so that a formal appreciation can be recorded. Mr. Chairman, I shall be grateful if you will convey the public's thanks to the heroic men concerned. But for them, the deaths might have greatly multiplied.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI: Mr. Chairman, I rise on a point of order and seeking explanation. How does the statement that Mr. Solomon RAFEEK has just made arise out of paragraph 35?
MR. SALES: Paragraph 34.
MR. BERNACCHI: I am sorry. Then it does. It deals with the fire at 139 Connaught Road.
QUESTIONS.
(1) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question:
As compassionate resettlement cases seem recently to have been held up for many months after recommendation is made by the Social Welfare Department, could the Commissioner for Resettlement outline what steps are taken to inform the client and offer him resettlement after recommendation is made?
THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:
This question concerns the administrative steps taken by the department for processing of compassionate resettlement cases. The procedure is outlined as follows. When a recommendation is received from the Director of Social Welfare or the Director of Medical and Health Services, or the Superintendent of the Hay Ling Chau Leprosarium, as the case may be, the client is invited to the Resettlement Department Headquarters for screening and subsequent allocation of a suitable unit in one of the resettlement estates where a quota for compassionate cases has been set aside. If the client accepts the allocation, then he is referred to the estate office for intake and the tenancy is normally let immediately. However, many clients insist on securing tenancies in the particular estate of their choice and do not accept the rooms offered. In this event, they are told that their wishes cannot be met, and if they so insist, they may wait until a room is available in the estate of their preference. This may take time if rooms set aside for compassionate cases in the particular estate are not available, or the new blocks in the particular estate are not ready.
MRS. ELLIOTT: Mr. Chairman, could the Commissioner for Resettlement tell me if there are usually rooms in all the estates allocated for Social Welfare cases?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: We have set quotas for specific estates. For instance, at the moment we have only 150 left in the quota already allocated, but we are expecting some vacancies in the forthcoming blocks. For instance, we are expecting 500 vacancies in Yau Tong, 447 in Sau Mau Ping, 122 in Tze Wan Shan, 167 in Shek Lei, and 50 in Castle Peak, but the blocks are not ready yet.
MRS. ELLIOTT: Mr. Chairman, in the first part of the answer, he says "when a recommendation is received from", I will miss out the names "the client is invited to the Resettlement Department Headquarters for screening". I wonder if the Commissioner could tell us how long a time lapse there is between the recommendation and the calling of the client. I am asking that because some of the cases I have referred have been told by me that the Social Welfare Department was recommending them, and it was months later that they were called. I would like to know what the usual time lapse is?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: I have details of one case here, the case of Madam Kwok Mui, whose recommendation from the Director of Social Welfare was dated 2nd September, 1970, but she was, in fact, interviewed on the 7th September, 1970. It was within a week.
MRS. ELLIOTT: I will be glad if the Commissioner will keep an eye on this and make sure Social Welfare cases are dealt with expeditiously.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: Certainly, we will look into it, but the thing is, we are conditioned by the fact that certain blocks, although being constructed, are not ready.
MRS. ELLIOTT: In clarification, Mr. Chairman, may I say that in the past, I am always calling the Social Welfare Department for being
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referring to the fire in the Connaught Road Central District on January 12 that took 10 lives. It was reported in the Press that men of the USD, out on their normal early-morning chores, saw smoke emitting from the building immediately raised the alarm, awoke unsuspecting sleepers, and then actively co-operated in helping to contain the flames with their street-washing vehicles.
The men could have turned their backs on the incident, but in a city reported to be selfish, they showed a willing sense of personal in- volvement and civic responsibility that deserves praise. My friends in the kaifong associations (particularly those in the Central Kaifong Association) and the multi-storey buildings associations have asked me to bring this matter up today so that a formal appreciation can be recorded. Mr. Chairman, I shall be grateful if you will convey the public's thanks to the heroic men concerned. But for them the deaths might have greatly multiplied.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI:---Mr. Chairman, I rise on a point of order and seeking explanation. How does the statement that Mr. Solomon RAFEEK has just made arise out of paragraph 35?
MR. SALES: Paragraph 34.
MR. BERNACCHI:-I am sorry. Then it does. It deals with the fire at 139 Connaught Road.
QUESTIONS.
(1) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question:-
As compassionate resettlement cases seem recently to have been held up for many months after recommendation is made by the Social Welfare Department, could the Commis- sioner for Resettlement outline what steps are taken to inform the client and offer him resettlement after recom- mendation is made?
THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT replied as follows: -
This question concerns the administrative steps taken by the department for processing of compassionate resettlement cases. The procedure is outlined as follows. When a recommendation is received from the Director of Social Welfare or the Director of Medical and Health Services, or the Superintendent of the Hay Ling Chau Leprosarium as the case may be, the client is invited to the Resettle- ment Department Headquarters for screening and sub- sequent allocation of a suitable unit in one of the resettle- ment estates where a quota for compassionate cases has
been set aside. If the client accepts the allocation, then he is referred to the estate office for intake and the ten- ancy is normally let immediately. However, many clients insist on securing tenancies in the particular estate of their choice, and do not accept the rooms offered. In this event, they are told that their wishes cannot be met and if they so insist, they may wait until a room is available in the estate of their preference. This may take time if rooms set aside for compassionate cases in the particular estate are not available, or the new blocks in the particu- lar estate are not ready.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, could the Commissioner for Re- settlement tell me if there are usually rooms in all the estates allocated for Social Welfare cases?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: -We have set quotas for specific estates. For instance, at the moment we have only 150 left in the quota already allocated, but we are expecting some vacancies in the forthcoming blocks. For instance, we are expecting 500 vacancies in Yau Tong, 447 in Sau Mau Ping, 122 in Tze Wan Shan, 167 in Shek Lei and 50 in Castle Peak, but the block are not ready yet.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, in the first part of the answer, he says "when a recommendation is received from", I will miss out the names "the client is invited to the Resettlement Department Head- quarters for screening". I wonder if the Commissioner could tell us how long a time lapse there is between the recommendation and the calling of the client. I am asking that because some of the cases I have referred have been told by me that the Social Welfare Department was recommending them and it was months later that they were called. 1 would like to know what the usual time lapse is?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:---I have details of one case here, the case of Madam Kwok Mui, whose recommendation from Director of Social Welfare was dated 2nd September, 1970, but she was, in fact, interviewed on the 7th September, 1970. It was within a week.
MRS. ELLIOTT: -I will be glad if the Commissioner will keep an eye on this and make sure Social Welfare cases are dealt with ex- pediently.
COMMISSIONER for ResettlemENT:-Certainly, we will look into it, but the thing is, we are conditioned by the fact that certain blocks, although being constructed, are not ready.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-In clarification, Mr. Chairman, may I say that in the past I am always calling the Social Welfare Department for being
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