Fund within an hour or two of making his problem known to a senior officer.
56. The Physical Education Officer continues to be an important agent in the maintenance of welfare and his organized programme has significantly contributed to the maintenance of morale during the year.
WELFARE AGENCIES
57. There are now three agencies in the Service directly or indirectly concerned with welfare. They are, namely, the Officers' Mess, the Fire Service Sports and Welfare Club and the Joint Fire Service Council on Staff Relations. In their own fields each of these agencies has made pleasing progress during the year, but as there is some overlapping of duties and responsibilities a departmental study group is now engaged in investigating the feasibility of combining all three agencies into one organization.
FIRE SERVICE staff's GENERAL ASSOCIATION
58. The Association is in effect the rank and file union and has been recognized as such for many years, but its membership has not kept pace with the expansion of the Service and it now represents less than one-third of the rank and file. Nevertheless, many useful and fruitful meetings have been held between the Association and senior officers during the year, and consideration is now being given as to whether the former should now be afforded representation on the Joint Fire Service Council.
59. As will be seen from the following paragraphs, the Fire Service Sports and Welfare Club under the chairmanship of Assistant Chief Fire Officer F. M. WATSON had a most successful year in all fields of sports and athletics.
Football
60. In the Hong Kong Football Association League Competition Fire Service teams in the 2nd and 3rd Divisions consolidated their position midway up their respective divisions. The football season was highlighted for the Service by the winning of the Jubilee Cup by the 2nd Division team who also reached semi-finals of the Junior Shield competition. In the Chinese Civil Servants' Sports Association Governor's Cup Competition the Fire Service finished 6th out of 28. In the Five-a-Side Knockout Tournament held by the Hong Kong
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