Chapter 11: Social Welfare
WELFARE work in present day Hong Kong is carried out against a social background probably without parallel any- where else in the world. The outstanding factor in this background is density of population, a population which has become swollen far beyond the Colony's capacity to absorb it effectively, and which includes some 700,000 who came to Hong Kong as refugees from Mainland China. Next in im- portance in the social background is the low standard of living of a large part of the population, and the fact that the restrictions on Hong Kong's traditional status as a free port, which have been in existence since shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, have caused a slow but progres- sive deterioration in living standards generally. The popula- tion is almost entirely Chinese, the great majority being Cantonese from the neighbouring province of Kwangtung. Probably less than 50% have lived in the Colony as long as ten years.
Hong Kong has always been fortunate in the number of religious and voluntary organizations which serve its welfare needs. There are some with a hundred years of service to the Colony who are still working here. Government did not directly concern itself with social welfare work until it set up its own Social Welfare Office in 1948. This department, from its beginning as an offshoot of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, has grown steadily, and now comprises seven separate divisions dealing with Relief, Child Welfare, Youth Welfare, Women and Girls' Welfare, Probation, Community Development, and Special Welfare Services (which includes such handicapped groups as the blind and crippled).
The relationship between the official Social Welfare Office