could be brought together. Each district office in this way had a gen- eralized function so as to deal with the total family situation of the client.
14. In pursuance of this aim the first regional office was opened in Western District of Hong Kong in 1965 and in the following year a similar and larger office was opened in the Eastern District so that the whole of the casework service in Hong Kong Island was centred in two main offices. At the end of September 1967 this process was taken a further step forward when a large and important office was opened in the new Kowloon Central Post Office Building. This drew together several offices which were previously centered in various buildings and concentrated them in a central office with a reservoir of casework skills in the Kowloon District Office of the Department. Three small offices in north-east Kowloon, in Sham Shui Po and at Tsuen Wan remain at present under the supervision of the new Kowloon District Office. They were reorganized to provide a more comprehensive family service at a local level than they provided in the past when they were concerned only with the administration of relief assistance. Planning of the next step of the development i.e. the provision of comprehensive district offices in the north-east and the north-west areas of Kowloon, was taken into account in the organization of the Kowloon District Office, which is such that when the time comes a further decentralization of district offices in Kowloon can be smoothly carried out.
15. As far as departmental services were concerned a notable feature was the large increase in the number of young persons passing through the correctional institutions as a direct result of the communist con- frontation. A total of 154 boys and 40 girls were remanded or detained in the Begonia Road Boys' Home and Ma Tau Wai Girls' Home for breaches of the Emergency Regulations between May and December 1967. About 87 of these were school students and nature of the offences committed included riot, unlawful assembly, breach of curfew orders, possession of inflammatory posters, forming part of intimidating assem- blies, and other offences against the Emergency Regulations. The majority were between the ages of 13 and 15 years. Those who were admitted to the Homes prior to September 1967 appeared to have become involved more out of curiosity and showed in general an in- different attitude towards the causes and aims of the disturbances. By way of contrast those entering institutions after September seemed to be more vocal in trying to justify the part they played in the disturbances and expressed overt sympathy with the instigators of the disturbances.
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