Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1956-1957 — Page 21

Chinese Affairs in the settlement of family disputes and other personal problems (for details, see the Secretary for Chinese Affairs' Annual Report) and of the assistance given at local Police Stations in the resolving of simple family disputes. In the New Territories such family cases are dealt with by the District Officers.

CHAPTER VIII - MORAL WELFARE

71. As in all the large seaports of the world, the social problems of prostitution in Hong Kong are very serious, but there are no licensed houses in the Colony.

72. To help children in moral danger the Social Welfare Office set up its Moral Welfare Section in 1952. Now renamed Women's and Girls' Section, it gives specialized care to any children in moral danger, to juvenile prostitutes, to unmarried mothers, and to girls who have become uncontrollable, and for whom the parents or guardians seek help. The officers of the Women's and Girls' Section work in very close co-operation with the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who run an approved school for girls who find themselves in this particular kind of difficulty. At Pelletier Hall, which was formally opened by His Excellency the Governor on 17th May, 1956, the nuns teach the girls all those skills which a normal girl learns naturally in her family as she grows up, but which the child sold into prostitution at an early age has never had the opportunity nor the need to learn. The girls learn cooking, care of infants, sewing and embroidery, reading and writing. They also learn a trade- such as weaving-so that eventually, when their whole attitude to life has been remoulded back to that of a normal healthy person, they are able to obtain employment and return to the world as normal people. Without the devoted help of the officers of the Women's and Girls' Section and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, these unfortunate children would become social outcasts without a future.

73. The Women's and Girls' Section also works very closely with the Po Leung Kuk, a Chinese charitable institution which, among its varied functions, offers care and shelter to those pathetic cases, unmarried mothers, who so much need quiet seclusion and a helping hand in their time of trouble, but who

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