Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1964-1965 — Page 9

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A RETROSPECT

THIS is only the seventh Report by a distinct Department of Social Welfare in which the services which it offers to the people of Hong Kong are described (see paragraph 9). Even the older members of the Department sometimes forget how short a time that is; and the great increase in its capacity and responsibilities that has taken place is sometimes over- looked, even by the kindly commentators in public life who give praise for what is done but temper it with sorrowful riders that there is so much left undone. Opportunity has been taken in a number of the statistical appendices to draw comparisons with the figures of seven years ago, and although there is no intention to labour the point any further in this text, the public may wish to consider whether a greater rate of expansion could in practice have been reached or expected, bearing in mind that the Department cannot pre-empt as recruits every one of the small number of trained entrants to the social work profession who qualify each year. That the professional status of the staff has risen very substantially is evident from Appendix 1, which also gives the totals of staff of all kinds and makes it clear that the growth has not been such as to make the promotion ladder top heavy: on the contrary, the spread has been almost entirely at the lower rungs. Appendix 24 is also relevant.

2. The first of these annual reports had a bright green cover and laid great stress on the social and economic problems created by Hong Kong's frightening growth of population to an estimated 2,800,000 (there are now a million more people). Next year, a pale yellow, the international interest aroused in Hong Kong by World Refugee Year was discussed and the generous benefits received from abroad as a result were gratefully acknowledged. In the third year an angry red covered a report which insisted that social work was a true profession, however newly arrived, and that it must have proper facilities for teaching its practitioners. An orange binding followed in which the introductory message was that the modern social welfare philosophy was constructive and em- phasized not hand-outs but self-help, leading both to better and more harmonious individual and family life and to a more self-reliant, in-

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