members are unofficials who have been appointed either on their personal knowledge and experience of welfare work, or as the representatives of prominent welfare organizations.
154. The Social Welfare Advisory Committee does its work mainly through a number of sub-committees, set up to investigate specific problems, and to advise on how these problems should be solved. The Committee also makes recom- mendations to Government concerning the subventions to be allocated to voluntary organizations, and advises on which welfare societies should be granted permission to hold a flag day. (For membership of the Social Welfare Advisory Com- mittee on 31st March, 1957 see Appendix XVII).
155. In the field of voluntary social work, the main co- ordinating body is the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. The Council includes most of Hong Kong's leading welfare societies amongst its members, but there are still many others which have not joined, and which carry on their work outside the Council's influence. The Council's aim is to co-ordinate the work of its affiliated members, and to act as a centre of general information about social work. The Hong Kong Government is represented at the executive meetings of the Council of Social Service by officers from the Education, Medical, Labour, and Social Welfare Departments, who attend as observers only, and have no vote.
156. Other co-ordinating bodies which perform most valu- able service in more specialized fields of social work are the Standing Conference of Youth Organizations, the Port Welfare Committee, and the Hong Kong Social Workers Association. This last has as its aim the achievement of greater practical co-operation in all fields, and seeks to attain its objective through closer personal contacts between all of its members. As in previous years, there were a number of informal gather- ings, and talks and discussions were arranged on matters of professional interest to members.
157. The relationship between official and voluntary social welfare work in Hong Kong is very close and harmonious, and the staff of the Social Welfare Office is, in fact, deeply interested in the work and problems of the many religious and voluntary welfare bodies which devote themselves to the service of the
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