ENG-1954 — Page 20

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1954

It became clear, therefore, when the surveys were completed, that the possibility of resettlement lay in one direction and one direction only intensive vertical development in place of intensive horizontal develop-

ment.

The principle was accepted but its application was tentative. In the Spring we were building to two stories, in the Summer to six and in the Autumn to seven. In the Winter we were preparing to demolish some of the two-story blocks to make way for founda- tions capable of holding seven stories. There are still victims of recent fires living in pathetic cabins built against the walls of side streets and cul-de-sacs. There are still people living in deplorable squalor in between the fire breaks in the old settlements. But no one has been taken outside the physical range of employment, and nearly 70,000 people have been rehoused during the year in fire proof and sanitary dwellings far beyond what they could have envisaged when, a year or two ago, they racked the rubbish heaps for sheets of cardboard and tin with which to shape four walls and a roof. The density, ventilation and amenities of these new blocks are not satisfactory. But the design is such that later alterations can provide for all these things. And it was thought better to provide all with minimum standards of hygiene, safety and security before thinking in terms of the optimum for anyone. A plan to which approval in principle has been given provides for the construction of about 30,000 domestic units for the benefit of 150,000 squatters who will be moved in order to free land for other grades of domestic development, or who are homeless as a result of this year's fires.

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