CO129-629-8 Social policy 1-12-1949 - 31-12-1951 — Page 90

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He also

achieve civic conscience to any extent unless Hong Kong was cut off

from the rest of the world which,of course was impossible.

pointed out that the Social Welfare Department had been functioning

for less than 4 years and that it did not exist before the war. 12%

of the Colony's revenue was spent on education and the number of children

in government schools had been doubled in the last year. Fifteen

Government schools were being built or reconstructed and the largest

of the new schools would take 1,000 and 800 students respectively.

They had also opened a college for training rural school teachers.

of the main difficulties in Hong Kong was to find the necessary staff

and it was only a month ago that they had been able to get a Registrar

of Co-operatives. Hong Kong's Colonial Development and Welfare allocation

was £1,000,000, about £300,000 was earmarked for development in the

New Territories and most of the rest would be devoted to housing for

lower paid workers. The Hong Kong Bank had also advanced money for

schemes for the provision of houses which would meet the needs of the

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One

white collar class, but had felt unable to do so for the dwellings for

the poorer class people as they were not a good security. He thought

it was in this connection that Bishop Hall had brought the housing

situation to the notice of the Archbishop of Canterbury as the Bank would

not agree to advance money for one of these schemes if Bishop Hall took

any part in its management and this annoyed him.

The Secretary of State raised the question of tuberculosis which

was a very serious menace to health in Hong Kong and connected very

closely with overcrowding. He wanted to know how Hong Kong tuberculosis

figures compared with those of, for example, Singapore.

Mr. Chinn said

we would have the figures looked up.

The Governor explained that Sir Patrick Abercrombie had prepared a

/Report

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