in the Department are directed to work outwards from each centre, forging social links with the residents of each housing block in their own homes. They also give judicious support, without control or con- descension, to groups which have already come into existence sponta- neously, or on the initiative of private individuals, in consolidating their achievements or in finding new members; and when lone persons are found with special interests they are introduced to others with similar tastes. This is the network by which residents are helped to become citizens, to develop co-operative attitudes, to increase their capacity to work together, and, by furthering their own particular interests, to serve the wider interests of the community.
17. For the community as a whole, the subject of this chapter is the Department's most important target, and its proudest boast. In Appendix 6 the Governor's speech made on 20th February, when (as recorded in paragraph 14 above) His Excellency opened the Kwun Tong Centre, is reprinted in full. It explains the subject and the aims so very much better than the present report could ever hope to do.
CHAPTER III
YOUTH WELFARE
18. Until recently the first purpose of the Department's youth welfare measures has been to improve and expand services for those children of 8 to 15 who could not get into school; but since it is now much easier for the average child to enter primary school, more energy can be devoted to stimulating the highly constructive work-with a self-consciously 'prophylactic' value-of creating opportunities and outlets for the energies of the much more inflammable group of young people between 14 and 19 years of age.
19. Much time and thought has therefore been given recently to assisting and supporting the sound establishment of the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups. The Federation itself has now established five youth centres and there are twenty-four youth groups under the sponsorship of churches and other bodies, which are affiliated to it; the total membership of these is about three thousand. At the end of the year the field secretary of the Federation received a Commonwealth Bursary to the Youth Leadership Course at the National College for the Training of Youth Leaders in Leicester. It is a blessing that this Federation promises
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