THE ARMED SERVICES AND AUXILIARY SERVICES
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During these civic duties they also perform crowd control duties and main information
centres.
A new task allocated to the Civil Aid Services was to assist the Agriculture and Fisheries Department in rabies control in the New Territories.
After completing their basic training, volunteers in the Adult Wing are deployed to a unit of their own choice near to the area in which they work or reside. This allows a unit to be mobilised rapidly in an emergency and the volunteers' knowledge of their own neighbour- hoods increases the effectiveness of the unit to which they belong. There are five Adult Units in Hong Kong, six in Kowloon and seven in the New Territories with each area being controlled by a Regional Command Headquarters.
There is also a Cadet Corps of 2400 boys, which is designed to encourage civic responsibility and awareness among the young people of Hong Kong and to help prepare them for adulthood. The objectives are achieved through a combination of training and operational duties, including apprenticeship training in fibre-glassing and mechanical workshop techniques, the organisation of safe sports activities, exercises in leadership and initiative, orienteering, life saving, mountaineering, crowd control and assisting the Agriculture and Fisheries Department in patrolling country parks. The cadets are recruited in a similar manner to their counterparts in the Adult Wing and the training they undergo is progressive; as the cadet gains more experience, he is permitted to undertake more advanced courses. The cadets are keen members of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and during the year, they obtained 76 bronze, 28 silver and one gold awards.
At the age of 18, cadets leave the corps and may then join either the Adult Wing in the Civil Aid Services or any other auxiliary or regular disciplined service.
All members share a 20-hectare training camp situated high above Castle Peak Road at Tsing Lung Tau. During 1981 the old village of Yuen Tun in the training camp site was completely renovated and reinstated as it was over 200 years ago, with generous donations from local dignitaries in Tsuen Wan District and with the help of the District Office, Tsuen Wan. There is also a centre for water-based activities at Tai Tan on the Sai Kung peninsula.
Auxiliary Medical Service
The Auxiliary Medical Service, which was formed over 30 years ago, now has nearly 6 000 volunteers including about 1 000 doctors, nurses and para-medical personnel. Its main role is to augment the medical and health services of Hong Kong as well as the ambulance service of the Fire Services Department during typhoons and other emergencies. Its members are mobilised as necessary to provide mobile first aid parties to work with rescue units of other services, to treat the wounded and the sick, to assist in evacuation of casualties from disaster sites to hospitals and to reinforce government clinics and hospitals. They also assist in mass inoculation against epidemics should the need arise.
The service performs a variety of duties such as first aid coverage at public functions, manning of medical posts at Vietnamese refugee camps, staffing methadone treatment centres, assisting the regular ambulance service on Sundays and public holidays, establish- ing first aid posts at country parks and reinforcing the USD lifeguard service at public beaches and swimming pools during the summer months.
Permanent staff of the service provide training to other government officers, especially those in the disciplined services, in first aid. Together with volunteer instructors they also give lectures to community and adult groups in first aid subjects with emphasis on safety at home.