10
REVIEW
almost every week throughout the year for the examination of something like 120 individual recommendations and their report was expected to be available in the beginning of 1965.
The fourth of our social services to come under close examination with a view to framing new policies has been social welfare. In November a White Paper on aims and policy was tabled at the Legislative Council and published in English and Chinese. This paper proposed guide-lines for the development of social welfare programmes in keeping with our situation: while we should continue to provide minimum public assistance to those who could not fend for themselves, the basis of our policy should be to help individuals or groups to overcome difficulties and handicaps which prevent them from attaining their full potential. It paid special attention to the part played by voluntary organizations in Hong Kong and was commended to them for study and comment.
In all four of these documents targets have been proposed which it should be within our means to reach. Each of them has inserted the further condition that these targets must be regularly recon- sidered in the light of our changing economic circumstances. It is not always money that limits the expansion of our social services. Money cannot be turned into houses or trained teachers or hospitals by the touch of a magic wand. There are limitations to other resources too. For instance, our housing problem has often been affected by factors, such as the difficulty and delay in the clearance of land, which hold up programmes, leave large sums unexpended in the public works budget and contribute to annual surpluses of revenue over expenditure. Those very surpluses often seem to lead to a vicious circle of misunderstanding with the assumption that any lag in our building programme can be made up simply by heavier spending. Budget surpluses are very comfortable and our ability to finance capital expenditure from recurrent income has been one of the most remarkable features of the past few years. But in the long term with ever increasing recurrent commitments it will not be quite so true to say that money will not be a limiting factor. More money for a particular service will mean less for another and priorities will have to be more sharply delineated. Future resources and needs must be reconciled so as to shape public services in such a way that they can be provided to reach as many as possible at costs we can afford to maintain.