ENG-1957 — Page 27

16

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

cautious optimism. He spoke of the 'gloom of declining trade and the vast overcrowding' and of the Colony's unfortunate dependence on outside events which it could do nothing to control. 'Are we then to give up all thought and schemes of development . . . . or even to cut down on what we are already doing?' he asked. To this, his answer was a firm and definite 'No.' The Colony might not be able to go as fast as it would like, but it would be Government's policy to go ahead. He outlined a list of public works totalling in value more than $100,000,000, to be undertaken within a five year period. Specifically not included in this programme was housing for the less well-to-do members of the com- munity, which he described as a matter of prime importance calling for early attention. He said that Government pro- posed to earmark the sum of $15,000,000 from the Develop- ment Fund for housing 2,500 families, or, say, 12,500 persons, and to ask the Secretary of State for a Colonial Development and Welfare grant to defray the cost of site formation. He envisaged the setting up of an Improvement Trust to administer working class housing; in the meantime the Hong Kong Housing Society, a non-profit-making body, would proceed with two pilot low-cost housing schemes. In light of later developments and the huge sums that were to be spent within the next seven years, the proposed expendi-

nexti ture was modest. But a 'start had been made and a new principle established--direct intervention by the Government in the housing of the people.

The ugly squatter fringes excepted, the Hong Kong of 1951 presented on the surface a pleasing picture of thriving growth. Although the general level of building had not yet reached the heights it was to assume within the next six years, miniature skyscrapers were already rising steeply from the mass of three and four-storey tenements in the two cities. The slim towers of concrete pointed to the end of the age of flat colonial architecture-an end which had been foreshadowed by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank