SOCIAL POLICY
5124
See also No
7.918
There is a valuable passage in the Annual Hong Kong Report for 1948, pages 88 to 93, on social welfare which, with other passages in the same Report, e.g. pages 19 to 28 inclusive on wages, occupation and labour, pages 133 to 138 inclusive on the Arts, appear to me to indicate beyond doubt that there is a social policy in Hong Kong and in many directions a keen and flourishing interest in the social advancement of its people.
The opening paragraph of page 133 of the Report admits "that the casual visitor to Hong Kong may easily believe that the citizens of Hong Kong are not devotees of the Arts since he finds in the Colony no art gallery, no English language theatre, no public concert hall......
The passage goes on to say that "such an indictment would be most unfair to the Colony" and for several pages gives details of various ways in which artistic and cultural activities are organised and fostered.
11
The Abercrombie Report for the replanning of Hong Kong which is now being studied by the Hong Kong Government, whose views on it we are awaiting, refers to the opportunity for construction of appropriate civic buildings of the kind mentioned in the last paragraph, in the reconstruction and creation of a great city centre, and in connection with the replanning of Victoria and Kowloon he has recommended the provision of small playgrounds, playing fields, rest parks and wider open spaces. To take only one instance of social welfare work, I well remember myself visiting the free feeding centres for children in Hong Kong and feeling very strongly at that time what a wonderful job was being done there despite many difficulties.
At No. 19 on 12500/17/49 below will be found recommendations for the Hong Kong Government's social welfare policy made in August, 1949, by the social welfare officer which are well worth detailed study. This report indicates under a number of heads the present position and makes
Much more in the various recommendations for improving it. way of detailed information on social welfare work could be added from papers in the Social Welfare Department, but the conclusion that there is no social policy in Hong Kong is, I think, without justification.