Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1957-1958 — Page 21

45. 6,566 emigrants were screened by the Special Welfare Services Section in accordance with the Asiatic Emigration Ordinance No. 30 of 1915 (see Appendix 11), the purpose of which is partly to prevent trafficking. The departure of fourteen women and juvenile emigrants was notified to the Department of Social Welfare in Singapore, so that action could be taken for their welfare on arrival. Under the Transfer of Functions of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs Ordinance, 1958, certain functions laid down in the Asiatic Emigration Ordinance were transferred to the Director of Social Welfare.

CHAPTER IX

PROBATION

46. Under the Assistant Director served nine Probation Officers (one female); two of them were assigned as Superintendents of the Remand Home and the Shanghai Street Children's Centre, Kowloon. The work of the Section expanded steadily during the year, as the Courts made increased use of Probation Officers. In addition to daily attendance at the Magistracies in Hong Kong and Kowloon, Probation Officers have, since July 1957, attended twice weekly the Magistrates Courts at Tai Po and Ping Shan in the New Territories. Selected officers continued to serve as Liaison Officers to the District Courts and the Supreme Court. Four new Magistracies which will be established in the near future will also require Probation staff to be attached to them.

47. The number of current probation cases proper (that is, persons convicted by a Court and ordered to be placed on probation) increased by 64 to 200 at the end of the year, as compared with the end of the previous year. There were 148 new cases and eighty four were completed, sixty six (or 79%) satisfactorily; sixteen were charged with fresh offences and trace was lost of two cases. Details by age and sex, with classification of offences in new cases and particulars of cases completed, etc. are shown in Appendix 13.

48. Probation Officers also looked after forty six persons (eleven female) who were referred for voluntary supervision by the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, Magistrates, welfare agencies and other sections of the Department. Appendix 14 shows the source of these cases in greater detail.

49. A third task performed by the Probation staff was the investi- gation of the social and hereditary background of offenders at the

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