19. Legal adoption, as distinct from Chinese customary adoption, has been possible in Hong Kong only since October 1956 when the Adoption Ordinance came into force. Under this Ordinance, the Director of Social Welfare is normally required to carry out the duties of guardian ad litem. The officers of the Child Welfare Section of the Department are authorized by warrant to make the inquiries prescribed and to prepare the reports required by the Supreme Court. Ninety six Adoption Orders were made during the year, as against eighty four during the previous year. Details are given in Appendix 5.
20. In the last two years, increasing numbers of orphans and abandoned children in Hong Kong have been found good homes abroad, mostly in the United States of America. Two international voluntary agencies have made this possible, International Social Service, an organization which has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and Catholic Relief Services; these bodies. through their branches in the U.S.A. and in many other countries, are able to 'match' children in need of a home with adoptive parents overseas who are willing to offer a homeless child in Hong Kong a place in the family; these agencies also hold a watching brief until legal adoption is complete. Children so adopted are usually without parents or legal guardians and are made wards of the Supreme Court, which then appoints the Director of Social Welfare as legal guardian with power to consent to adoption abroad. A total of 160 children left Hong Kong for adoption abroad during the year.
21. Foster Parents Plan, an American organization, opened a local branch in November 1959 and has concentrated its efforts on supporting poor children in their own homes, both financially and by providing clothes, school materials, etc. There were some 285 children on the books of this organization at the end of the year.
22. Not the least of the duties of the officers of the Child Welfare Section is that of maintaining liaison with children's institutions, such as babies' homes, crêches, day nurseries and orphanages, a list of which is given at Appendix 6. Six hundred and ninety one of the children in the care of the Department were admitted to eight of these institutions during the year, the majority going to the Po Leung Kuk, an old- established Chinese institution for children and girls in need of care and protection, with which the Department has long had a close connexion; this became even closer in the course of the year, as a member of the staff of the Department was seconded to the post of Superintendent at
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