TNAG-0003-FCO40-39-Commission-of-Enquiry-into-the-Kowloon-disturbances-addition-1968 — Page 161

PART VI CONCLUSIONS

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(c) Character training

530. A number of witnesses stressed that most schools were concerned with an academic syllabus and examination results at the expense of moral guidance, civic education and recreation. Few would dispute that education should do more than provide an academic learning, although we would draw attention to the view of a youth leader that Hong Kong students themselves tend to resent time taken away from examination studies.

531. With the examples before us of the outstanding success of the Schools Music Festival during the last decade and more recently of school quiz competi- tions and exhibitions, to mention only three of the excellent extra-curricular activities now so popular and so well-established, we feel justified in suggesting that more time could, with advantage, be found also for more instruction in civic education at all stages of school work. Obviously, the next generation will enjoy more leisure than their parents and there is a consequent need to teach them how to fill their leisure hours in a constructive way.

(iv) Lack of Community Spirit

Race

532. It would be unusual if the heightened emotional atmosphere engendered by the disturbances did not give expression to latent feelings of racialism and nationalism.

533. Yet the small part played by racialism in these particular riots has already been noted. This situation appears to be a tribute to the usually tolerant attitude that exists between the races in Hong Kong. But there is no room for complacency on this aspect. It remains a potentially explosive factor whenever public emotion is aroused.

Community development

534. Many of the factors mentioned by witnesses and referred to in earlier paragraphs of this part go some way towards explaining the relative lack of a community spirit in Hong Kong. The need to develop a sense of community by breaking down the barriers posed by a diversity of language and place of origin is self evident.

535. The 1965 report of the Director of Social Welfare relates the achieve- ments of the existing community centres and states (p. 6):

'If there is one imperative need obvious above all other in Hong Kong, it is to take determined and unfaltering steps to stimulate a sense of community and social responsibility. The phenomenal post-war growth of the population and the economy alike made for a lack of social cohesion as inevitable as it is disturbing. Hong Kong is in most practical ways not a settlement with a history of 124 years—much less an outpost of the world's most ancient continuous and uniform culture-but rather a great assemblage of people, few of whose corporate