In 1949, D Robertson, one of Singapore's Municipal Commissioners and a member of the board of trustees of the Singapore Improvement Trust, wrote two articles on the problems of the rising population in Singapore in The Straits Times. Here are the extracts:
The Straits Times, Oct 11, 1949... It has been obvious for some considerable time that some similar policy or organisation is urgently required to deal with population trends in the Colony of Singapore, to make recommendations, and to take any appropriate action in regard to the present alarming rate of increase in the population...
... This island has never been efficiently "town-planned" in accordance with modern ideas of shopping centres, schools, satellite towns, parks and open spaces; and with the population continuing to increase at the present rate, it will be many years before it will be possible to replace any appreciable number of the filthy slums and squalid kampongs by clean, sanitary buildings...
... No sane person can deny that every major project -- whether it be Housing, Medical Services, Anti-Tuberculosis measures, the provision of more schools, or Social Welfare and Social Security -- is doomed to failure unless those in authority, and those who have most influence amongst their own communities and races, remove the wool from their eyes and press for a thorough investigation and immediate action in regard to this serious problem.
It is a tragic fact that those in authority now who have it in their power to instigate action will not be here to witness the ultimate results of their inaction in the Colony -- they will either have returned to England or they will have passed on to their ancestors, so that the local position in 5, 10, 15 or 20 years' time will not be of immediate interest to them.
The people of Singapore, so we were recently told, owe to the Friends of Singapore a debt of gratitude for fostering a culture which is definitely emerging in the life of Singapore, and one of Singapore's best known citizens appeals for an urgently needed cultural centre, but nothing is heard from the same sources of the future dangers likely to arise from an abnormal rate of increase of the local population, the bulk of which is unlikely ever to participate in such cultural amenities. All true friends of Singapore should be seriously concerned about this vital question of over-crowding.
The Straits Times, Oct 12, 1949... With the present number of children reaching school age every year, one new school to accommodate about 500 pupils must be built every week if they are all to receive primary education. If an unbridled increase in population continues, in 10 years' time it will be necessary to build one new school every three or four days!
... In regard to housing, there are at present 15,000 applicants for less than 1,000 Singapore Improvement Trust houses and flats due to be completed during the next six to nine months. Nearly 10,000 of these applicants have applied for accommodation, despite the fact that the register of applicants has been closed for a considerable period, and that their chances of obtaining accommodation are extremely remote.
... All these thousands of applicants only touch the fringe of the urgent problem of reducing the overcrowding in the slum areas and insanitary kampongs, where before very long, large numbers of people must be removed from buildings liable to collapse at any moment.
It is not generally realised that to re-house people from dangerous and overcrowded old buildings, such as those in the Hokkien Street and Pickering Street areas, requires new accommodation three to four times the capacity of the old, if the overcrowding conditions are not to be perpetuated.
... At the present time it is calculated that between 150,000 and 200,000 persons are living in filthy slums or insanitary kampongs in Singapore, and to provide these people with clean and sanitary accommodation would cost something like $150,000,000.
... Early this year the Commissioner of Labour pointed out that every month 1,100 boys reach employable age and cannot find work.
This number will increase from year to year, unless the problem of over-population is tackled with all the energy at Government's command, for it is perfectly obvious that neither industry, agriculture nor the entrepot trade can increase to such an extent to absorb such increases of available labour on Singapore island.
... Whilst it should be possible to reach the higher-salaried clerical classes, merchants, importers, etc, through the medium of the Press, it is only possible to reach the labourer, the hawker, the trishaw rider, the artisan and the poorer clerical classes through the leaders of their community and through the various guilds, temples, hui kuans (clan associations) and other organisations.
These leaders, together with the leaders of other communities, can show whether they have the future interests of Singapore at heart -- and, incidentally, the interests of their own descendants -- by the extent to which they co-operate with the Colony Government in dealing with the danger of over-population.
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