ENG-1956 — Page 32

REVIEW

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could be accommodated was both occupied by the squatters and also subject to a prior claim, for it must not be forgotten that there existed in Hong Kong a most serious housing problem quite apart from the question of the resettlement of the squatters. In all parts of the Colony the tenement build- ings were crowded to five or six times their pre-war density, rents of new premises were prohibitively high, and, if the squatters are disregarded, the single urgent need of the whole Colony was for low-cost housing. The people who endured this need were the established lower-paid workers, the very back-bone of the Colony, and, prima facie at all events, older residents who had the first claim on the Colony's resources. It seemed that their need could be met only by freeing the land sterilized by the squatter settlements. But where were the squatters to be moved to? And even if the land could be formed out of the hillsides or reclaimed from the sea, who was to sponsor such an enterprise-far removed from the resources of the housing societies and unattractive to private enterprise? It had never in the past been Govern- ment's policy to enter into the field of domestic construction and there seemed to be valid economic reasons why it should not do so now. And although it was clear that only the Colony's budget could provide funds of the magnitude needed for site formation and construction on the scale re- quired, it was not so much the prime cost as the incidental implications of so drastic a commitment that gave Govern- ✰ment pause. By setting itself up as the landlord of some 300,000 refugees, did not Government by that fact alone recognize them as an integral part of the population? And did not this imply schooling for their children, care for their sick, more imported food, more reservoirs taking years to build, and, perhaps worst of all, more delay to the Colony's legitimate projects of development while these special needs were being met?

Perhaps enough has been said to show that there were the most cogent reasons for delay and for careful deliberation