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THE COMMUNITY
However, after years of campaigning for public support to help deal with various community problems, comparatively little had been achieved. Then in late 1972 the government launched a vigorous and prolonged drive to clean-up Hong Kong. This represented the first major attempt to mobilise a full-scale community effort, concentrated on a particular problem.
A drive by the Urban Services Department, and stricter penalties for litter offences, lent weight to the government's determination but could not claim full credit for the results achieved. The biggest single factor in the success of the cam- paign was the enthusiasm with which the public seized upon this opportunity to im- prove their surroundings, though it was greatly helped by the carefully planned publicity campaign, strongly supported by the press, television and radio.
The task of involving the community fell mainly on the City District Officers, whose principal instrument was the area committee. Nearly 80 of these committees were established to encourage local participation in the campaign, with members drawn from all walks of life, including doctors, teachers, housewives, hawkers and factory workers.
The area committees had two main functions-to undertake publicity and educational work, and to organise demonstration clean-up operations to show that conditions could be improved. More than 1,000 working groups were set up, based on streets or groups of buildings or drawn from various organisations. It is estimated that about 100,000 people were involved in the campaign.
The Fight Violent Crime Campaign
The growing incidence of violent crime was a problem which prompted far greater concern than urban cleanliness; a concern made increasingly apparent in late 1972 through views expressed by community leaders and through newspaper comment. But the nature of the problem necessitated a more careful approach.
The Fight Violent Crime Campaign, launched in June 1973, concentrated on the duty of members of the public to assist the police in dealing with criminals. The public were encouraged to report crime, dial 999 and raise a hue-and-cry, but were warned of the dangers of tackling an armed assailant.
Following the action phase of the campaign, an opinion survey showed that the public were much more ready than before to co-operate with the police. Of those questioned, 65 per cent said they believed the campaign had achieved some success. Perhaps more significantly, 98 per cent considered that the campaign was worthwhile.
The area committees were again involved, and there is no doubt that their efforts are continuing to contribute a great deal to the success of the campaign.
One of the causes of the growth of crime in Hong Kong was the lost feeling experienced by many immigrant families living in crowded tenement housing or multi-storey flats, in surroundings very different from those they had known. Cut off from their traditional clan associations, and removed from the security they had derived from their old social groupings, they found it difficult to replace those ties
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