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etc. are already flourishing and a library serves over 600 people of all ages every day.

92. In the crowded slum area of Sai Ying Pun the Tsan Yuk Social Centre provides a much needed outlet for the teeming population of the over-crowded tenements. Activities and facilities similar to those in the other centres are in operation here. The youth group organized a children's summer club last August and has now in hand over $1,000, raised through putting on a play, for a similar undertaking this year.

93. Community Organization is a comparatively new field of social work, not only in Hong Kong but elsewhere. A Community or Social Centre provides a focus for work in this field which is potentially very well suited to its development. There are already encouraging signs that good foundations are being laid for further progress.

CHAPTER X

OFFICIAL AND VOLUNTARY CO-OPERATION

94. In Hong Kong, as in many countries throughout the world, the early initiative in providing welfare services was taken by voluntary organizations and there are many such agencies that can point with justifiable pride to long and devoted services to those in need. Indeed, as already mentioned, the Government did not find it necessary to set up a Social Welfare Office until 1948 and it was not until 1958 that a separate Social Welfare Department came into being. Hong Kong is fortunate in always having had a large number of Chinese organiza- tions which generously contribute in work and money to many forms of social service. It has been equally fortunate in the numbers of international religious and welfare organizations which have contributed substantially to welfare needs through gifts of money, goods and services. The Social Welfare Department acknowledges with warm appreciation these significant contributions, without which the welfare services available to the community would of necessity be severely restricted. The Department is keenly aware of the fact that a fully effective programme of social welfare services can only be achieved through the combined efforts of Government and voluntary organiza- tions, both having the same goals and a mutual understanding of how best the common good can be met. In the final analysis, Government should ensure that basic social welfare services are made available to those persons who are found, on due inquiry, to be in need by reason

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