Registrar of Marriages finds that there are matters of which he is in doubt and of which he must satisfy himself under the law. Their work is none the easier for the fact that girls have to be willing to accept help if anything practical is to be done. This is particularly true of girls aged 18 and over who are not subject to any direction under the law. The section's responsibility therefore calls for sensitive, sympathetic and skilled casework, which is time-consuming but indispensable if any effective help is to be given. The social and economic conditions that distinguish any large seaport or urban population combine here to make the task yet more difficult. Hong Kong does not escape the com- mercialization of sex common to such cities, with crowded housing, separation from parents and the erosion of close-knit family life.
57. The Protection of Women and Juveniles Ordinance, an enact- ment consolidation and amending various measures that go back to 1897, contains a series of provisions intended to protect women and girls from exploitation and to prevent trafficking and the running of brothels; the enforcement of these provisions is primarily the task of the police. Proposals for rewriting this and connected legislation to bring it into line with more modern thinking and to provide protection for boys as well as girls are at present being formulated. Because board- ing houses are frequently used as places where youth is contaminated and led into vice an inter-departmental working party has been convened with the object of coming to grips with the problem and introducing preventive legislation. It is also hoped that other amending legislation will soon be enacted which will make dealings in blue films and other forms of pornography more risky than at present.
58. Remedial and after-care services, designed to provide firm psychological support for young women at a time when they are most in need of assistance and understanding, are the responsibility of this department. Prostitutes who are willing to accept help are given intensive counselling and are referred for medical treatment when necessary or for institutional care; the chief aim is to help young girls before they have become hardened and used to easy money. The unmarried mother may be assisted with accommodation and medical care. Counselling is given to the girl and where possible the putative father and the parents of the couple both before and after the birth of the child, principally to help the mother to plan wisely for her own future and the future of the child. She may be helped to legalize her union if this seems to be in the best interests of both the couple and
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