Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1957-1958 — Page 8

The co-ordination of official and voluntary work is dealt with su stantively in the last chapter of this Report.

4. A brief note on the setting in which the work described in the succeeding chapters is carried on may assist the reader to appreciate better the needs and the efforts being made to meet them. Population increase is the overriding factor which has created, or intensified, every need; rough figures are: 1945, 600,000; 1946, 1,600,000; 1950, 2,360,000; 1956, over 24 millions; annual rate of natural increase, at least 75,000. These huge post-war increases have led to gross over- crowding in the cramped area of urban or industrial Hong Kong, where the density of population in some places exceeds 2,000 to the acre, widespread under-employment and poverty and serious deficiencies in medical, educational and other services. In the field of social welfare, poverty and the intense competition for unskilled employment have led to more children being abandoned by their parents, more girls being led into prostitution and more people becoming destitute or taking to crime. The Department, in close collaboration with voluntary agencies and institutions, seeks to rescue such unfortunates, as well as the victims of fires, floods and other natural disasters, to provide them with food or shelter where necessary and to assist and train them to occupy, or to resume, a useful place in society. Special efforts are made on behalf of those who are physically handicapped and therefore need help if they are to compete successfully in the struggle for existence. Finally, overcrowding and the deficiency of schools throws many children and young people into the streets and intensifies the need for day nurseries and clubs.

CHAPTER II

THE SOCIAL WELFARE DEPARTMENT

5. The senior officers of the Department are the Director, and the Deputy Director who are both Cadet Administrative Officers, and six Assistant Directors, a Secretary and an Accountant. Each Assistant Director is a specialist officer, expert in one of the fields of social welfare among which the departmental functions are distributed; under each Assistant Director serves a professional staff of Officers and Assistant Officers, and in certain cases Supervisors, Social Workers and others. There is in addition a clerical, accounting and office staff. A summary appears at Appendix 1.

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