PUBLICATIONS, BROADCASTING AND FILMS
303
diverse subjects as the opening of the Queen Elizabeth hospital and the Shek Pik reservoir, a children's dance competition and the city's building boom. The unit also completed the shooting of a 20-minute colour feature on the resettlement programme. Nearer home, the unit took part in many of the publicity exercises on behalf of Government departments. The first of a series of short crime prevention films was completed early in the year for showing on television and in cinemas. Films were also prepared as part of health campaigns, including polio and cholera vaccina- tion drives. Another short colour film for general showing dealt with the causes and dangers of hill fires during the dry season.
For the first time the department approached its full establish- ment; the press division is now wholly staffed by locally recruited officers with experience in local journalism. During the year two more local officers were sent to Britain on training courses, one organized by the Central Office of Information. The other officer, a photographer, spent three months with a national newspaper thus gaining valuable experience in the techniques of press photo- graphy and in the photographic requirements of the British press.
Close working arrangements were maintained throughout the year with the information officer at the Hong Kong Government Office in London who distributed a full range of publicity media, produced in the Colony, through the United Kingdom press and other channels. This material included feature articles, photographs and press releases. The degree of usage by the magazine and daily press was most encouraging.
Although in its everyday work the department is primarily concerned with publicizing the affairs of Hong Kong, everything possible is done to promote knowledge of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, and maximum use is made of material supplied by the Central Office of Information, London, for this purpose. The department's film loan library of 16 mm colour and black-and-white films now numbers 500, mostly supplied by the Central Office of Information although more than 30 were pro- duced in Hong Kong. During the year about 3,000 films were issued for exhibition by clubs, schools and other institutions and approximately 300 films, comprising a regular weekly news