}
52. The services provided by the Relief Section of the Social Welfare Office comprised outdoor relief administered through six welfare centres, indoor relief in three relief camps at North Point, Morrison Hill and Rennie's Mill, and Emergency Relief (described in Chapter 11). In addition to the distribu- tion of free meals, which averaged about 2,050 daily, the six centres carried out other activities such as helping the un- employed to obtain work, hawkers' licences, or free education for their children. The majority of destitutes maintained at North Point Camp pending their obtaining employment or other means of help were local people but there was also among the 260 inmates a small number of foreign displaced persons who were awaiting resettlement or repatriation. The Morrison Hill Camp provided accommodation only for indigent families, totalling about 160 persons, who were temporarily without a place to stay, and the Rennie's Mill Camp cared for 500 disabled ex-Nationalist soldiers and their dependents (a total of 755 persons) for whom arrangements were being made for repatriation to Formosa. During 1954/55 a total of $697,299 was spent on public assistance, camps, and routine relief at the Social Welfare Office welfare centres.
53. A number of voluntary organizations subsidized by Government gave financial assistance to the needy. During the year ending December, 1954 the Hong Kong War Memorial Fund Committee paid out $206,286 in grants to various categories of persons bereaved as the result of the Japanese Occupation. Members of the ten conferences of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul which were set up in various parishes of the Catholic Church helped an average of about 600 persons each month with grants, a total of HK$120,292 being spent during the year under review by the 10 conferences on mon- etary relief. Families in financial distress mainly sought the aid of, or were referred by other agencies to, the Hong Kong Family Welfare Society. During 1954/55 the Society assisted no less than 27,158 families through the payment of rent, school fees and loans or grants for the setting up of hawker's business, and through giving out cash relief amounting to HK$107,696 and relief in kind.
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