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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
discharges statutory responsibilities for the welfare of children in moral danger and the protection of women, as well as being concerned with aid to unmarried mothers, rehabilitation of prostitutes, and settling family disputes.
The Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who assist in the work of this Section by providing institutional training for juvenile prostitutes and other young girls, moved into their new home, Pelletier Hall, where it will be possible eventually to take in up to 100 girls-44 more than in their former temporary home.
Probationary Work
Juvenile delinquency is not a serious problem in Hong Kong; the majority of the offences committed by boys and girls who were brought before the two juvenile courts arose more from poverty (illegal hawking to supplement family earnings etc.) rather than from any intrinsically anti-social motives. The Juvenile Offenders Ordinance, 1953, which set up juvenile courts, also introduced probation as a form of treatment for young offenders. Four probation officers now supervise 80 probationers. Their work is greatly facilitated by two children's centres set up by philanthropic committees, which are run partly as probation hostels and partly as clubs for street-children who might otherwise become potential delinquents. In the clubs, tailoring, rattan-weaving and broom-making are taught. The Juvenile Care Centre caters for 250 children, and Shanghai Street Children's Centre for 107. The former provides accommodation, in addition, for 60, and the latter for 40, probationers and destitute children.
With the opening in June of a new Remand Home, in Matauwei Road, facilities are now available for the care of juveniles on arrest and remand, and on short-term detention as a form of treatment. An assistant probation officer with previous training in the United Kingdom in the administra- tion of remand homes is the superintendent of this new Social Welfare Office venture. The Castle Peak Boys' Home, an approved school for boys run by the Salvation Army on behalf of the Social Welfare Office, opened a new wing in September, providing additional premises for the expansion of education and recreation. In addition to education in good citizenship, vocational training in shoe-making, carpentry, rattan work and agriculture is given to the 80 boys in the Home. At the Kwai Chung Girls' Home, an approved school for girls which is also managed by the Salvation Army on the