smoothly with the help of the relief committee formed by representatives of the nearby villages and the Sheung Shui Chamber of Commerce.
64. Squatter fires were, however, not the only natural disasters which engaged busily the attention of the Social Welfare Office Relief Section. On 29th August, 1954 a typhoon struck the Colony causing the collapse of a number of squatter huts in the Ngau Tau Kok area. The persons thus rendered homeless received relief until they were able to move out into new accommodation. Similarly, those in need as a result of house-collapses, floods, and tenement fires were all cared for.
65. Towards the end of February, 1955, as a result of the rapid progress achieved by the Resettlement Department, and a new Government policy limiting emergency feeding to a period of only one month, pressure of work in the new Hung- hom Kitchen was greatly reduced. It was also possible on 28.2.55 to close down the Maple Street Centre where the bulk of the mass feeding had been carried out for the past fifteen months.
CHAPTER XII
CARE OF THE PHYSICALLY
AND MENTALLY HANDICAPPED
66. There has been no census in Hong Kong since 1931, and consequently little statistical data are available on the incidence of physical and mental handicaps among the Colony's population of 2 million. However, recent estimates given in respect of some categories of handicapped persons place the number of mental defectives at 2,500, of cases of total blind- ness at approximately 2,700 and of leprosy at about 6,000.
67. Relief of needy handicapped persons and their families continued to be administered mainly by the Social Welfare Office through its 6 welfare centres where they were given priority in the general scheme of public assistance, and at the Rennie's Mill Camp where approximately 500 disabled ex- Nationalist war-veterans and their families were maintained.
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