Emergency Relief
SOCIAL SERVICES
A flood and a number of squatter fires occurred during the year, rendering many thousands homeless. Government and voluntary agencies undertook the burden of emergency relief for the victims and the Social Welfare Office cooked and distributed nearly 2,000,000 free meals.
The first disaster occurred at the end of April, when a fire destroyed the huts of some 10,000 persons, and immediate measures for temporary relief were in hand. Within 6 hours of the outbreak of the fire, 3,000 persons were receiving free meals, and in fourteen days a fully equipped camp was built and running. Fire victims stayed in the camp until they were able to make their own arrangements for accommodation.
In September exceptionally heavy rainfall, culminating in a cloudburst, made a breach in a large catchment channel and caused extensive flooding in a village in the New Territories. Coming, as it did, when the news of the Lynmouth disaster was fresh in the minds of the public the donations for the relief of these flood victims were exceptionally generous. These persons also received temporary aid in the form of free food and accommodation. In November a second large fire destroyed a comparatively prosperous section of a squatter settlement. Again large quantities of free food were distributed but accommodation was found to be unnecessary. In all these and other lesser disasters magnificent work was done by relief workers from the Kaifongs and other voluntary associations.
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