encouraging prospects of securing one or more highly qualified con- sultants to join this team.
3. The claim that social work needs recruits with a thorough pro- fessional training, in addition to high personal qualities, may be demon- strated by reference to many of the activities recorded in the succeeding chapters of this report. Consider, for instance, the child care officer whose responsible task it is to assist and support the future develop- ment as a normal person of a child deprived of family life through abandonment or physical defect; or the probation officer charged by a Court gradually to guide a young man, who has never had a fair chance in life and so has a grudge against society, so that he may become a useful member of the community; or the group worker in a community centre whose job it is to encourage those living in a big resettlement estate to understand, to express and eventually to meet their own social needs; or the officer whose work lies in assisting the severely handicapped to overcome their defects and live a normal life; or the caseworker upon whose insight, sympathy and skill depends the future of a family suffering from internal stress-whether it is to be restored as a healthy natural unit or whether it will succumb to strain and fall apart, with disastrous consequences for the lives of the children. Social workers in these and other fields are entrusted by their calling with the responsible task of handling human material, of helping people to come to terms with their environment and so to make the most of their talents and their personality in its setting. This is no more a job for amateurs than is the physician's in the diagnosis and cure of physical or mental disease.
4. The present report on the year's work of the Social Welfare Department and the many voluntary agencies with which it co-operates so closely has to be presented in broad outline and in statistical form, if a concise picture is to be given at least of the main achievements during the period. But if the reader would give rein to imagination and try to visualize the developments described in terms of individual human beings, the nature of the social work profession will become clearer. In particular it will be evident that the social worker requires the highest standards of training and skill, as well as devotion, and carries a heavy responsibility towards those who seek aid and counsel; and, at the same time, has chosen a rewarding and satisfying vocation.
5. It will also be very evident both that the needs over a wide field of social work in Hong Kong are immense and that the opportunities
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