PRICE: $1
ANNUAL
DEPARTMENTAL
REPORTS
1951-2
QUARTERING
AUTHORITY
C
HONG KONG
ANNUAL DEPARTMENTAL REPORT
BY THE
QUARTERING AUTHORITY
FOR THE
FINANCIAL YEAR 1951-2
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE GOVERNMENT PRINTER,
HONG KONG.
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REQUISITIONING
CONTENTS
Paragraphs
1
2 - 4
CONTROL OF HOTELS
OFFICE ACCOMMODATION
...
...
ACCOMMODATION OF GOVERNMENT OFFICERS:
(A) Non-Departmental Quarters
(B) Hotels
(C) Hostels
STAFF
TABLE I
List
...
...
LO
5
6 8
9 - 10
...
11
14
15
of non-departmental quarters according to grades, as on 31st March, 1952.
TABLE II Numbers of non-departmental quarters and estimated numbers of officers eligible to apply for them on 31st March 1952.
TABLE III Numbers of officers in hotels and hostels
on 31st March 1952.
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REQUISITIONING
1. For the purposes of this Report, requisitioning is dealt with under four heads:
(A) Property Requisitioned during the 1945/6
Military Administration.
At the end of last year a total of 63 units was held under requisition, divided between Government and the Services as follows:
Royal Navy 2 Army 9 R.A.F. 12 Government 39
During the year under review, 4 units have been derequisitioned by Government, thus reducing the total number of units held under requisition to 58.
(B) Property requisitioned by Government to relieve the housing shortage.
During the year 2 units were derequisitioned, which has reduced the number of units held under requisition to 29.
(C) Property Requisitioned by Government since the Military Administration.
No further requisitioning for this purpose has taken place and 11 units were still held under requisition at the end
of the year.
(D) Property Requisitioned for the Services
since 1st May, 1949.
As was the case last year, very little requisitioning for the Services has taken place during this year. In all 29 units were requisitioned, of which number 5 units were for the Army
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(
and 24 units were for the Royal Air Force. The requisitioning for the Army was in respect of land and one building in the New Territories while the properties requisitioned for the Royal Air Force comprised three blocks of new flats in the urban area. As only 23 units were released by derequisitioning during the year, the number of units held under requisition at the end of the year has been increased to 190, as compared with last year's total of 184 units. These 190 units were divided
between the Services as follows:
Royal Navy
Army
Royal Air Force
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139
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2.
CONTROL OF HOTELS
After a comprehensive review of the position, in view of the slackened demand for accommodation and of the number of new hotels which had come into existence, Government considered that the control of hotels was no longer justified. It was decided, therefore, to repeal the Hotels Ordinance, 1949, forthwith and a Bill for this purpose was introduced and given its first reading at the Legislative Council Meeting on the 5th September, 1951. Prior to this, each of the 24 controlled hotels had undertaken voluntarily that Hong Kong residents, as defined in the Ordinance, who were residing in those hotels on the date when the repealing Bill was first published, would be permitted to continue residing there on their existing terms for a period of one year, providing the stay was unbroken. A similar undertaking was given in the case of members of H.M. Forces and their families, except that the rooms would be made avail- able for a period of one year in the first instance, after which the position would be reviewed in the light of the accommoda- tion then required by members of H.M. Forces.
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3. Under the Hotels Ordinance, 1949, a Hong Kong resident who was residing in a controlled hotel, was entitled to be provided according to a Resident's Menu, with breakfast, lunch and dinner, for a total weekly charge not exceeding $45.50. In view, however, of the representations made by the controlled hotels regarding the increased costs of providing such a Menu, Government also decided to permit the controlled hotels to increase their maximum rates to $49 per week.
4. The Hotels (Repeal) Ordinance, No. 32 of 1951, came into operation on the 21st September, 1951.
OFFICE ACCOMMODATION
5. The position regarding Government office accommoda- tion has remained the same, in that there have been no major changes during the year and none are likely to occur until the one block of central Government offices has been built. has now commenced on the first stage of this project.
Work
ACCOMMODATION OF GOVERNMENT OFFICERS
Non-Departmental Quarters.
6.
During the year there has been a net increase of 26 quarters over last year's total of 251 non-departmental quarters. Details are as follows:
5 Stewart Terrace flats (excluding 1 flat allocated as a depart- mental quarter)
2 Argyle Street flats
1 Gascoigne Road house
3
Leased by Government.
Formerly departmental quarters.
do
1 Marble Hall Lodge
5 Sunning Court flats
12 Albany flats
(excluding 2 flats allocated as depart- mental quarters)
1 Epworth Lodge flat
Formerly leased to a non-Government tenant.
Returned by Army.
New Government quarters.
Leased by Government.
Total 27 quarters, less 1 Mount Nicholson bungalow allocated as a departmental quarter.
Net increase 26 quarters.
7. With the addition of the above quarters, the regrading of four other quarters and with the exchange by the Army of an 'A' grade house, (which was on loan to them), for a 'B' grade flat, the number of quarters available by grades, has altered to some extent. A list of non-departmental quarters is given
in Table I.
8. Table II gives the numbers of non-departmental quarters and the estimated numbers of officers who are eligible to apply for them.
Hotels.
9. It was mentioned in last year's Report that at the end of January, 1951, 54 officers (19 single and 36 married, of whom 19 had children), were accommodated in hotels and that this total was the highest it had been since May, 1949. It was also mentioned in last year's Report that since the end of January, 1951, the number of married officers in hotels had commenced to decrease gradually. This situation continued, until by the end of August, 1951, only 13 single officers and 2
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married officers, neither of whom had children, were left in hotels. The figure for married officers is the lowest it has been since 1945.
10. Since the end of August, 1951, the number of officers accommodated in hotels has increased gradually but in no case has the end of the month figure been higher than for the cor- responding period last year.
Hostels.
11. There has been no charge in the position regarding the four Government hostels:
(i) Arlington Hostel
(ii) The Hermitage
(iii) Macdonnell Road
Hostel
(iv) Buxey Lodge
primarily for married
officers,
for single women only,
for single men only,
for single men only.
12. As in the case of hotels, the number of married officers accommodated in Arlington Hostel commenced to decrease after the end of January, 1951, and by June, there were only 14 married officers in the hostel, (6 with children). These figures are the lowest they have been since February, 1949, and it resulted in the unprecedented position of there being vacant rooms in the hostel with no married officers to occupy them. This situation remained unchanged up to September, 1951, after which the hostel gradually filled up as officers commenced to return from leave and by the end of November the hostel was fully occupied by 21 married officers, 14 of whom had children.
13. In the case of the three other Government hostels which cater only for single officers, the numbers accommodated
—
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+
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remained fairly constant throughout the year because as soon as rooms became vacant, they were filled by moving officers from hotels.
14. Table III gives the numbers of officers in Hotels and Hostels at the end of the year.
STAFF
15. Mr. T. S. D. Whitley proceeded on vacation leave on 31st March, 1952 and Mr. H. R. J. Woulfe Flanagan was ap- pointed to act as Quartering Authority with effect from 31st. March, 1952.
H. R. J. WOULFE FLANAGAN, Acting Quartering Authority.
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TABLE I
List of Non-Departmental Quarters according to Grades, as on 31.3.1952.
Quarters No. of
GRADE "A"
19 Homuntin Hill Road
1
"Mirador", Deep Water Bay
1
152, 153, 154, 157, 275, 276, 361, 407,
534, 556, 557 (+) The Peak
11
45 Shouson Hill
1
GRADE "B"
Total
1-5, 7-10, 12-14 Albany Flats 12 and 17 Branksome Towers
5B and 5C Broom Road
1-5 Epworth Lodge
16 Homuntin Hill Road
150 A-C, 151B, 155, 156, 406 The Peak
1-9 and 11 Peak Pavilions
1-13, 15-26 Queen's Gardens
GRADE "C"
Total
2
5
1
NNN D
12
2
14
7
...
10
25
64
126 and 128 Argyle Street, ground-2nd
floors
165 Argyle Street, ground and 1st floors... 1-6, 8-20, 23-31, 33-39, 41-48 King's Park
6
2
43.
1-21, 23-26 Leighton Hill
25
270 The Peak, ground-2nd floors
3
271 The Peak, ground and 1st floors
2
2-5 Victoria Flats
4.
Total
85
Carried forward....
163
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TABLE I-(Contd.)
Brought forward...........
163
GRADE "D"
111 Austin Road, 3rd floor
1
3A & 3C-H, 5A-C & 5E-H "Courtlands",
Kennedy Road
14
1-6 Cox's Path
6
1 Garden Terrace, 1st floor
1
3 Gascoigne Road
1 Victoria Flats
1
1, 4-14 Ventris Road
12
1
GRADE "E"
Total
6 Carnarvon Road, A-D,
1-3 Cornwall Street Bungalows
1A and 1B Minden Row
1-22, 24 and 25 Mount Nicholson
4
3
2
Bungalows
24
4, 6 and 14 (grd.-3rd floors) and 12 (1st-4th floors) Hoi Ping Road
16
3 and 5 (1st-3rd floors) and 7 and 9
(grd. floors) Sunning Road 97-131 Wongneichong Road
8
(Odd numbers)
18
Total
36
75
O
GRADE "F"
3-I and 5-I "Courtlands", Kennedy Road
2
GRADE "G"
Marble Hall Lodge
1
Grand Total ....
277 quarters
(+). Temporarily converted into 2 'C' grade flats.
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TABLE II
Numbers of Non-Departmental Quarters and Estimated Numbers of Officers Eligible to Apply for Them on 31st March, 1952.
Grade of Quarters
Property
Govt.
Leased
Ex-Enemy
Requisi-
tioned
Total No. of
Quarters
Estimated No.
of Officers Eligible to
apply
Married Single
Ꮐ
ABCDEFO
13
54
С
72
34
175
14
37
3
ON ∞ N
2
64
43
5
8
85
78
15
36
107
39
49
24
2
75
43
16
2
1
2
9
9
1
1
8
24
225
37
3
12
227
325
111
Totals
NOTE: The number of officers shown include those on leave but do
not include those in departmental quarters.
TABLE III
Numbers of Officers in Hotels and Hostels on 31st March, 1952.
Single Officers
Married
Total
Officers
Male
Female
Hotels
14
Govt. Hostels
30
Non-Govt. Hostels
18
| |
14
(7)
28 (7)
18
19 (11)
67 (11)
1
19
Totals
62
18
34 (18)
114 (18)
NOTE: (1) Figures in brackets indicate numbers of married
officers with children in the Colony.
(2) Single officers include officers whose wives are not in the Colony. Married officers are those whose wives, are in the Colony.
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