On the gains side, during the year we had seven new life members, three members transferred from ordinary membership to life membership, and one honorary life member was added: a total of eleven new life members in all. A total of sixty-one new ordinary members joined during the year, and thus our total membership gains over losses was thirty. Present membership stands at 555.
Programme of Events
Some new members join when they attend one or other of our activities as guests of members. Altogether, during the calendar year, we have had eight lectures, two film shows, two tours, and an Extraordinary Meeting to discuss a proposal for joining the Hong Kong Arts Centre. Our last Annual General meeting took place on March 27, 1972, accompanied by a dinner which has now become one of our annual events.
As always, your Council has tried to arrange a varied programme to suit the many interests of members. May I say here that any suggestions from members as to topics they would like to see introduced or discussed are most welcome, as is also any information as to specialists passing through Hong Kong whom we might capture for an evening to talk to us, or talks you might be able to give us yourselves.
Our programme for the calendar year covered many topics related to our general sphere of interest. Several lectures dealt with historical subjects currently being investigated by scholars. They related to such places as Sarawak, Hong Kong, Japan, and Mongolia. Other subjects were related to the arts, sociology, geography, and natural sciences. Several lectures, I am pleased to relate, were in fact given by our own members. One film show consisted of two films presented by their producer and filmer, Mr. Hugh Gibb. One was on Chinese religion and the other on Chinese opera, both in Hong Kong. Mr. Gibb, a member of our Society, is well known for his cultural and ethnographic films and we are grateful to him for making these films available to us. The other film shown was Mr. Brian Brake's documentary on Borobudur in Java. We are similarly grateful to him for lending it to us.
The Java film was shown at the end of the Extraordinary Meeting and this brings me back to the Hong Kong Arts Centre. During the resuscitated existence of our Society, we have not been able, despite all our efforts, to raise enough funds from firms, individuals,