17. Seven officers completed specialized courses in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and Singapore during the year, while two Principal Officers participated in seminars in the Philippines and Malaya. The overseas courses were in psychiatric social work, deaf welfare, nursery training, public assistance and social studies. The Principal Officer (Special Welfare Services) attended the I.L.O. Asian Seminar on vocational rehabilitation of the disabled in Manila while the Principal Officer (Child Welfare) participated in the U.N. seminar on family and child welfare in Malaya.
18. At the end of March, three officers were still in higher training abroad. One was taking a two-year course on the education and care of mentally retarded children at the University of Illinois, another a course on community development and adult education at the University of London, and the third a one-year course in social welfare and administration at the University College of Swansea.
19. Staff members of voluntary organizations also pursue studies abroad when opportunities arise. One notable instance was the award of the Creech Jones Scholarship to a member of the staff of the Family Welfare Society for the coming academic year. The scholarship is for a year's course in social welfare and administration at Swansea.
CHAPTER IV
INFANT AND CHILD WELFARE
20. Improved social welfare services, the general increase in salaries and wages and the slowly spreading knowledge of family planning all contributed towards a heartening drop in the number of babies aban- doned. Only 154 babies were abandoned during the year compared with 205 the previous year. Almost all of those abandoned were girls. It has now become possible for most abandoned and orphaned babies to be adopted into families in Hong Kong and abroad, at least between birth and the age of four and occasionally at an older age.
21. Two international voluntary organizations, International Social Service and Catholic Relief Services, continued to perform a useful service in finding homes overseas for abandoned babies, orphans and other children without proper family care. During the year 247 children left for adoption abroad; 226 went to the United States, 18 to the United Kingdom and one each to France, Germany and Honduras. Prior to their departure, 32 of these children received some three
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