Extract from Draft Minutes of 48th Muting of 43 b. S. W. A.b. held on 1-10-51
3.
Social Welfare in Hong Kong (CSWAC 19/51).
THE VICE-CHAIRMAN introduced Mr. McDouall who had been invited to speak on the three questions referred to in the paper before the Committee.
(i) Proposal for the establishment of a separate Department of
Social Welfare.
The origin of this matter was that after his visit to Hong Kong, Mr. Chinn had recommended that social welfare work should be divorced from the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs (SCA) and that an independent Social Welfare Department should be established. Mr. McDouall, speaking from his own viewpoint as Social Welfare Officer, said that he had for the last year or two come round to the view that certainly.at present and in the foreseeable future this would not be in the interests of the healthy development of social welfare work in Hong Kong. It was recorded at the foot of page 1 of paper C.S.W.A.C. 19/51 that the Committee considered that "ideally a Social Welfare Office should not be concerned with political work" (i.e. with the S.C.A.). But
(1) The S.C.A. ..as not primarily a political organisation; it was very
closely connected with social affairs.
(2) It has always had, and still has, a large number of genuinely
welfare responsibilities with which it is associated in the minds of the Chinese.
(3) The S.C.A.'s prestige was of great value to the S.W.0., for so long
as the S.7.0. was in Chinese minds associated with it.
(4) The S.W.0. had the completest possible administrative and financial
freedom vis-a-vis the S.C.A., and suffered nothing in that direction.
(5) At the same time the S.7.0. was if necessary freely able to call
on or make use of certain S.C.A. staff, and did so.
In amplification of (1) and (2) Mr. McDouall explained that the S.C.A., in addition to other non-political activities, was still the statutory Protector of Women and Juveniles, and was either the chief or the only government officer concerned with the administration of the Aberdeen Industrial School, the Po Leung Kuk, the charitable Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, the Brewin Fund for old age pensioners, arbitration or advice in Chinese family disputes or troubles, and the proper maintenance of Chinese temples which are in their way important social foci. He was also the Government's principal adviser on all Chinese reactions and feelings, and the Government's principal interpreter to the Chinese community. It was true that in some of these matters there might appear, on paper, to be some overlapping between the functions of the S.C.A. and the S.W.0. if anyone were to try to write down exactly what each department did. In practice there was at present no administrative difficulty, confusion or delay. But there almost certainly would be if the two were separated. It was also relevant to note that in the event of serious internal disorders or of war the two departments had to be one. Finally, any objection to the S.W.0. being too closely connected with the S.C.A. on the grounds that the latter was undesirably concerned with political work, appeared to be weakened by the. fact that some important S.W.O. work had in any case and in its own right to be concerned with political activities. This was true at least in a negative sense of all Kaifong work and much relief work, in both of which political elements had to be kept at bay, and would be true in a much more direct way should a state of emergency be declared or war break out.
In amplification of (3) Mr. McDouall stressed that it was of the greatest importance that welfare work should not be merely identified in the public's mind with relief work, The S.W.O's close association with the S.C.A. gives,
This for reasons already explained, a further chance to drive that home. association with the S.C.A. is of the greatest value in any activity which concerns the Chinese. As 99% of the population is Chinese, more than 99%. of the S.W.0.'s work is amongst or with Chinese. If the S.C.A. and S.W.0. were separated
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