ducted 87 successful prosecutions during the year for offences under this Ordinance; details are shown in Appendix 9. Traffic in females and the use of premises as brothels are among the major offences covered by this law. The total number of women and girls whose welfare was still the concern of this Section at the end of the year was over 2,000. Of nearly 600 new cases during the year, 128 were pros- titutes, 70 unmarried mothers and 131 victims of indecent assaults. Further particulars are at Appendix 10. Officers of this Section paid some 2,500 home visits to girls under their care and conducted over 20,000 interviews during the year, more than half of these at the new sub-office established in January 1959 at Buckingham Building in Kowloon.
35. Seventy eight women and girls in the care of the Section were married; it is interesting to note that, in keeping with the modern trend towards the solemnization of marriage in registries or churches, only 12 of these marriages were in accordance with Chinese custom. Employ- ment was found for 267 girls who were in the care of the Section, some in factories and others as domestic servants; a few were found jobs as assistants in shops or as typists. The number of girls found work approached twice the figure for the previous year, an indication of the shortage of skilled labour that is now prevalent in the Colony, particularly of young girls for work in garment factories. This increase in the demand for labour should in time improve the prospects of persuading more and more young girls to give up prostitution, by pro- viding a more attractive and more remunerative alternative.
36. The Section works very closely with two voluntary institutions, Pelletier Hall and the Po Leung Kuk. Pelletier Hall is a Home run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who have similar homes in other parts of the world; residential care and domestic and vocational training is provided for up to 128 girls, mostly between the ages of 14 and 18, who have been persuaded to enter the Home to learn a better way of living. This Home only admits girls recommended by the Department and 72 entered during the year. Since 1956, the devoted work of the Sisters has provided several hundred girls with a useful training and education over an average period of two years residence, designed to equip them for a normal and useful way of life. The measure of their success is that an estimated 90% of all those who have had this opportunity have resumed a normal life on their return to the com- munity. At the end of the year a Reception Home to accommodate 32 girls was being built and further expansion is planned. The Po Leung
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