53
I
and one female Probation Officer for the whole Colony. The salary proposed would be $1,200-$1,800 by $100 annually for all such officers whether male or female. These officers would form part of the staff of the Magistracies in Hong Kong and Kowloon.
To make the work of Juvenile Courts effective it is essential that there Remand should be places set apart to which youthful offenders may be sent both before Homes. and during the consideration of their cases. For this purpose therefore a Remand Home is absolutely essential both for boys and for girls. The Remand Home may serve a further purpose. It may be used when the Court so directs as a place of detention of juvenile offenders committed by the Court to serve a sentence of detention not exceeding six months. It is undesirable to send offenders in this category to an industrial school as offenders sent to industrial schools are normally kept there for a period sufficient to enable them to be taught a trade. It is thus quite clear that without such a Home the Courts cannot function. Our main object therefore was to secure some place which could be made available within a reasonably short period of time as a Remand Home. Among the files forwarded for our consideration was one dealing with the Belilios Reformatory. Bearing in mind the great value of the remand as a disciplinary measure and the absolute necessity for it as a means of giving the Court time to consider a case and to make arrangements for the ultimate dis- posal of the offender we considered whether or not the Belilios Reformatory could be adapted to this purpose and accordingly visited this institution on the 14th of April. It is at present under the control of the Mother Superior of the Sœurs de St. Paul de Chartres and at the time of our visit contained thirty-six females of ages varying from infancy to seventy years. The average daily number accommodated is from thirty to forty. Some of the inmates contribute towards their maintenance. A fact of importance disclosed by the sister in charge was that approximately fifty per cent. of the inmates come from the interior, and it is understood that many of them are sent to the institution by Roman Catholic missions in the interior. The inmates do laundry work and needle work. Although all the work done by this institution is undoubtedly of value, its value to the Colony is certainly lessened by the fact that a high percentage of the inmates are not Hong Kong women. We therefore feel that the continuance of this institution is by no means indispensable and that arrangements might well be made for the accommodation of the inmates in other institutions. The old and infirm might be sent to the Home in Kowloon City, the mui tsai to the Po Leung Kuk and others to the Roman Catholic Homes in the Colony of - which there are a number. It is further our considered opinion that in view of the absolute necessity for the early provision of a Remand Home and place of detention for boys (girls already being provided for in the Po Leung Kuk) early notice should be given to the Mother Superior of the Sœurs de St. Paul de Chartres terminating the present tenancy of the premises and that the same be converted into a Remand Home and place of detention for male juvenile offenders. This use of the premises would be in keeping with the expressed wishes of the donor of the buildings which we feel the present use is not. the same time we would hesitate to make this recommendation were we not satisfied that no other premises are available and no other scheme practicable for the purpose indicated. Any alternative scheme must involve the cost of the acquisition of a site and of constructing a building. We have indeed considered certain possible sites for a new building :-
At
(1) The site adjoining the Po Leung Kuk site at Caroline Hill. (2) The site originally recommended for the new Po Leung Kuk in the
Sookunpo Valley, i.e. Botanical and Forestry Department Garden. (3) The site in the Sookunpo Valley adjoining the Japanese Crematorium.
We feel, however, that these sites will no doubt have to be considered in the future when extensions or new premises are needed, but we do not regard any of the possible sites as a satisfactory alternative to the Belilios Reforma- tory, since we consider that any scheme other than making immediate use of the Belilios Reformatory will involve both heavy expenditure and such delay as would postpone for a regrettably long period the institution of Juvenile Courts.