THE COMMUNITY
9
with new ones. If the family next door had not shared that background, they re- mained strangers or, at best, acquaintances to be tolerated but kept at a distance.
When crime reared its head in these surroundings, the instinctive reaction was to retreat behind locked doors and ignore whatever might be happening outside. Prospects for neighbourly co-operation made little headway under these circum- stances, and the concept of getting together with one's fellow tenants, to organise collective action for the common good, remained remote and unreal.
Yet this spirit of neighbourly co-operation, which the old clan associations had encouraged, still offered the best hope of security for all concerned.
Accordingly, much of the planning and organisation of the Fight Violent Crime Campaign was directed towards reviving this mutual aid system and adapting the clan spirit to the new urban neighbourhood. Working largely through the CDOS, the New Territories Administration and the area committees, the Home Affairs Department enlisted support from kaifongs, rural committees and other voluntary associations for the creation of mutual aid committees which would serve as rallying points for this movement. Area committee members toured multi-storey estates and private residential blocks in their areas, explaining the benefits of mutual aid and encouraging tenants to join in.
By the end of 1973, a total of 1,214 mutual aid committees had been set up in various buildings and residential groupings, with a total membership of some 110,380 households. Crime prevention is by no means the sole preoccupation of these com- mittees, which are also involved in the Clean Your Building Campaign, the second phase of Clean Hong Kong, which began in the autumn of 1973.
The tradition of mutual aid originally grew up in a rural setting. Today this tradition is being harnessed to tackle urban social problems found in the management of multi-storey buildings under divided ownership. The mutual aid committee is a simple form of organisation which can be set up with a minimum of formality, enabling owners and tenants to work together to improve conditions in their build- ings. Although the basic aim of the movement is building management, it is already clear that the mutual aid committee has the potential to meet other needs; in particular the need to replace the social links that disappeared with the decline of traditional forms of village life. A sense of neighbourliness is already developing in some multi- storey blocks where mutual aid committees have been set up, and people are now getting to know their neighbours in a way which seemed impossible before.
Targets for Action
Corruption became a major talking point during the year-elevated to promi- nence by the flight of a senior police officer reported to have large sums deposited in banks overseas.
Sir Alastair Blair-Kerr, Senior Puisne Judge, conducted a commission of enquiry into that aspect of corruption which involved the civil service, and submitted recommendations which led to the creation of an independent Anti-Corruption Commission.