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who have some ambitions in public life. In all societies such men are a small minority and Hong Kong is no exception. To succeed in public life they act to gather prestige and so their work has to reflect what they believe people think and want. They have perhaps an undue regard for Government officials with whom they are in regular contact, especially S.C.A. staff, but this is a defect which is as readily recognized and discounted in Hong Kong as elsewhere. C.D.O.s have maintained these contacts and the considerable increase in staff has meant that those willing to do more work have been put under greater pressure.
34.
We have however been very conscious that these traditional contacts do not for the most part reach the poorer people or those well-to-do people who are not interested in public activities or public life. We can only claim to have made a start to reach these people but a start has been made. The problem has been how to establish contact for there is a limit to what can be done by simply going to an office, a school or a factory just to pass the time of day.
35.
We have concluded that the most effective way to make contact is to join in something that is happening or to stimulate some activity which will be of interest to some group, preferably of some direct use to us, but which involves a C.D.O. seeing a good deal of some group. So many approaches have been tried that I find it difficult to describe them without simply writing a catalogue. Action has sprung from the C.D.O.s' initiative without instruction or permission being required from headquarters.
36.
Surveys, done by volunteers with C.D.O. guidance, of hawkers, multi-storey building management, old tenements, squatter living
/conditions
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