Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1966-1967 — Page 59

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111. Professor Lady WILLIAMS' Report on the 'Feasibility of a Survey into Social Welfare Provision and Allied Topics in Hong Kong' also involved a great many voluntary welfare agencies, the Social Welfare Advisory Committee, the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, as well as many other bodies and Government departments whose comments and reactions were sought and collated by the Social Welfare Department. Reactions to all the recommendations made in the Report were by no means unanimous although it was generally recognized that many of the proposals contained in the Report were sound. Further discussion leading to decisions on implementation of this Report are awaited.

112. The Hong Kong Social Workers' Association conducted inter- views with 24 boys detained in the Begonia Road Boys' Home, at the request of the Commission of Enquiry into the Kowloon Disturbances and its findings were incorporated into the Commission's Report. In March the Association also published the first issue of its Journal of Social Work which it is intended should be issued bi-annually. Talks and film-shows were included in the Association's monthly programmes for members and efforts to interpret and popularize social work as a career, especially in secondary schools continued.

113. Some of the most encouraging evidence of the willingness of the Government and the voluntary agencies to work together lies in the response of the latter to the social work training programme which is reported in Chapter X. Their willingness to provide facilities for field work training of social work students and to participate in in-service training courses has also shown this.

114. The department sees its role as that of a partner with the voluntary agencies. Each has important tasks to perform, which will be carried out effectively in understanding and good will.

CONCLUSION

115. The only way ahead for Hong Kong is the way of stability, both social and economic. Without a sound and viable economy the social improvements that so many desire are unattainable; what is perhaps less commonly acknowledged but is no less true is that, without a sound society in which the claims of human dignity and both the rights and obligations of man to man are recognized and acted on, economic stability is in jeopardy. The riots of April 1966 have shown

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