women and girls to self-respect and economic and psychological inde- pendence; more than a hundred and forty received instruction in cooking, tailoring, knitting, embroidery and beading, or laundering during the year. Thirty-two girls found work after training and another sixty-five in the Department's care got employment in factories, shops, offices or households; a further seventy-two were married (see Appendix 17).
69. Close liaison is maintained with two voluntary institutions, Pel- letier Hall and the Po Leung Kuk, and one private home, the Agnes Maternity Home. Pelletier Hall is run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd who have similar Homes in other parts of the world; residential care, education and domestic and vocational training are provided for up to a hundred and sixty girls, mostly between the ages of 14 and 18, who have agreed to enter the home to learn a better way of life (see Appendix 18). During the year, hairdressing and English conversation have been added to the skills already being taught: these were elementary book- keeping, cooking, tailoring and power-machine sewing, typing, knitting, laundering, commercial art and baby-care. The Po Leung Kuk, besides its work for children already referred to in paragraph 60, provided for thirty-five unmarried mothers and their children, while six others who required special care were looked after at the Agnes Maternity Home.
70. In accordance with the requirements of the Asiatic Emigration Ordinance, 1915, the Special Welfare Services Section of the Department interviewed over sixteen hundred women and children who were leaving Hong Kong by ship. The purpose of this obsolescent enactment was mainly to prevent trafficking in women and children (see Appendix 19).
CHAPTER VIII
PUBLIC ASSISTANCE AND EMERGENCY RELIEF
71. Relief work is still only too often associated in the public mind with the random handing out of food, clothing and cash, and is con- sidered a simple operation which requires little or no skill. This was true in past years when social work was labelled charity or philanthropy and when alms were given out mechanically to all comers with little attempt to discover the causes of individual need, if indeed it was genuine. Public assistance work to-day is not as simple as it appears to those who have not studied it in action. Each applicant is investigated thoroughly in the
28