Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1948-1954 — Page 9

5. The Press, both Chinese and English, has been con- sistently generous in the space given to social problems and in the attention paid to the ways in which the problems were being met by the Social Welfare Office and the voluntary organizations. As a matter of policy, the Social Welfare Office did not of itself seek publicity, but in 1951 an exception was made on the occasion of the department's fourth birthday celebrations, when a large-scale exhibition was held, designed to interest and inform the public on all branches of social work.

CHAPTER II

THE SOCIAL WELFARE OFFICE

6. The Social Welfare Office was first established on 27th August, 1947 as a specialized sub-department of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs. At that time it consisted of one Cadet Officer who had taken a post-graduate Social Science Diploma Course in the United Kingdom, and one temporary clerk. To these were added on the 1st April, 1948 the Relief Section of the Medical Department, plus three untrained probation officers from the Police and Prisons Departments. At the same time, the Social Welfare Officer, who had been gazetted as an Assistant Secretary for Chinese Affairs took over on behalf of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs the latter's day-to-day responsibilities for the protection of women and girls, and for dealing with suicide cases and destitutes seeking free repatria- tion. From then on the Social Welfare Office ran almost independently, and the Social Welfare Officer prepared and administered his own Estimates, and dealt direct with the Colonial Secretariat and other government departments on policy as well as on routine matters. Nevertheless, the Social Welfare Office's nominal connexion with the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs and the fact that both departments shared the same floor of the Fire Brigade Building, enabled the Social Welfare Office to use certain Secretariat for Chinese Affairs facilities, and to benefit from a close and ready source of guidance and advice.

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