and clothing materials were distributed. A further result of the troubles in China was that many transfers of children from destitute or broken families took place; these transfers ranged from genuine adoptions which were in the best interests of the children to the most vicious forms of trafficking. All adoptions of girls are required by law to be registered at the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, and the voluntary registration of adoptions of boys is actively encouraged; 747 new adoptions were recorded during the year, and 2,445 home visits were paid to these and other protected children by the women inspectors of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs. Careful watch was also kept for cases of cruelty to children and of children subjected to grave moral danger, and as a result, 58 prosecutions were undertaken and 51 children were given a fresh start.
Youth Work flourished, special attention being paid to those destitutes or near-destitutes who had no hope of receiving any schooling. The number of Youth Clubs reserved for these particular boys and girls rose to twenty; in addition there was a permanent camp for a hundred boys, among whom were a large number of juvenile petty delinquents, in healthy surround- ings on the South side of the island. A new venture for fifty boys was also started nearby in the form of a sea-training school, partly inspired by the "Outward Bound" experiment at Aberdovey in Wales. At the end of the year further plans were put up for an official vocational training centre for five or six hundred orphaned or destitute children, and also for an industrial apprentices' Youth Club in Kowloon. An interesting experiment was also carried out in two of the free food centres where because of the barrenness of the accommodation and the lack of adequate protection from the weather, it was imprac- ticable to follow up an original idea to use these centres as rudimentary "regged schools"; qualified workers therefore used blackboard and chalk to teach the children who attended about four Chinese characters a day as they waited for the meal to be served, and, as most Chinese children in Hong Kong desperately eager for any kind of education this makeshift experiment proved a very popular success.
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The Secretary for Chinese Affairs and his assistants arbitrated in nearly 1,300 matrimonial or family disputes and also dealt with all the cases of unsuccessful suicide; these attempted suicide cases number about 30 a month, and instead of being prosecuted they are offered help, advice or guidance according to their needs. The voluntary organisations also gave a great deal of assistance to the indigent by way of gifts or sometimes loans in cash or kind, in free congee centres, by supporting children at schools or institutions, by repatriating non-local destitutes, and by procuring hawkers' licences or jobs for some of the unemployed.
Adult destitutes who were not on the books of one of the charitable organisations of the Colony had four other possible sources of relief. They were free repatriation, in most cases at the public expense, to their homes in China; admission to Govern- ment camps or centres for those who were genuine transient
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