12
REVIEW
voluntary social welfare and other public work. The availability of people from all walks of life, able and willing to give time and effort to public service in this way is one of the most heartening aspects of our community life. It extends in the one direction to membership of the many boards set up by Government to provide advice over a broad field of administration and in the other to a very great amount of entirely voluntary and charitable work which is nevertheless well integrated with official policy. Such institutions as the Tung Wah Hospitals and the Po Leung Kuk with their long histories of charitable endeavour are regarded not as mere charities, but rather as expressions of communal responsibility. This sense of responsibility is a natural extension of the Chinese family system and despite the strains of our present circumstances is strongly evident in many other organizations. Such are the Kai Fong Welfare Associations of Hong Kong which celebrated their eleventh an- niversary this year.
Kai Fong groups were originally neighbourhood organizations providing assistance and mutual help in sickness or misfortune. The Kai Fong tradition in Hong Kong is strong, and there has been a neighbourhood association in the Stanley district for well over 100-years, while the residents of another district founded a Kai Fong association more than 50 years ago. In the early days of their post-war development, the associations concentrated on material help to the needy and the many great squatter fires monopolized their attention for a time. But this phase passed and their activities spread to all aspects of community life. A peculiar service, which only the Kai Fongs can render because of their roots among the people, is arbitration in family quarrels. Many Chinese people, who would shun a government officer or agency, will enthusiastically seek the help of a Kai Fong in the event of a dispute, and experience has proved that the confidence they place in the Kai Fongs is well founded. Clansmen's and district associations formed by people with a common ancestral home or surname form other useful bridges between Government and various local communities.
Through this network of individuals and groups there is available to Government a wealth of experience and advice in addition to the formal machinery for debate in the Legislative Council. Indeed when he tabled the policy statement on social welfare, the Colonial Secretary specifically invited public comment as a prelude to a