CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1. In this report will be found a brief description of the work of the Social Welfare Department during the period April, 1948-March, 1954. Throughout the report there are frequent references to the work being done by voluntary organizations, as well as some mention of the part played by other Government departments. These references could hardly be less, since the encouragement of voluntary effort and the development of closer co-operation between voluntary bodies and interested Government departments have always been among the main duties of the Social Welfare Department. To give the full story of Hong Kong's Social Welfare Services during the period under review would mean devoting far more space to a great range of non-government activities.
2. An adequate definition of the Social Welfare Services in Hong Kong was hard to find, but one tentatively adopted by this department was the enunciation of a common ideal, which was: "to enable every member of the community to develop into a reliable neighbour, and a useful and informed fellow- citizen." Every practical step taken towards that ideal meant a gain to the community, inasmuch as successful social work resulted in fewer social misfits, more individual self-reliance, and less dependance upon "charity" by families or persons. It meant more enterprise but less crime (especially among juveniles), more people actively aware of matters of general social importance, less waste of cultural opportunities, and (perhaps most important of all) less gullible material for sub- versively-minded persons to work on-in short, citizens with a much more highly developed social consciousness and sense of social responsibility than had existed previously.
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