ENG-1963 — Page 59

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and the value of the land surrendered, valued at the date of sur- render, being credited to the War Office. Any credit balance avail- able to the War Office could be used for transfer of additional land and also to defray the cost of capital defence works. Between 1898 and 1939 regular transfers of land took place on this basis, but post-war conditions in Hong Kong have made this procedure increasingly unrealistic. It has therefore been the Government's policy to negotiate with the military authorities outside the scope of the account in the same way as with the other two Services.

A Government proclamation was issued on 21st October 1844 calling attention to the fact that ‘a great number of Chinese and others have, without permission and in direct opposition to Law and Custom, settled themselves upon the Queen's Road and at divers places along the coast of this Island' and it called upon them to remove themselves forthwith, failing which they would be ejected. The constant reference throughout the years to tres- passers and other illegal occupants of Crown land makes it clear that such encroachments have continued to occur. The 1887 Land Commission examined the question in great detail and the Surveyor General is recorded as referring to the 'poachers surreptitiously appropriating Crown land' and opposing the recommendations of the commission that such trespassers should receive compensation for disturbance no matter how long standing their illegal occupa- tion. Despite all the efforts that were made throughout the first half of the next century, squatters continued to be an endemic problem and by 1950, as a result of the incursion of great numbers of immigrants, very large areas of Crown land had been overrun. In these circumstances, a more humane and practical approach was called for than that adopted 100 years earlier and in 1952 the Government announced the policy of resettlement which has had such a major influence on subsequent development of the Colony and aroused the interest of people in many parts of the world.

This policy was, and is still, directed basically towards the clearance of Crown land to facilitate its development by permanent buildings. During the last 10 years, some 2,000 acres of land have been cleared and over 500,000 people have been rehoused in the process. But it is estimated that some 600,000 still remain, mainly