ENG-1949 — Page 113

Residential care for 1,700 deprived children was provided by 15 orphanages and foundling homes, the majority of which received welfare and educational subsidies from Government. Non-residential child welfare work, other than that in the boys and girls clubs, was mainly undertaken by the Social Welfare Office. Transfers of children from destitute or broken homes, sometimes for a purely nominal consideration and by strangers who were new to the Colony, continued to present a serious social problem, not least on account of the opportunities which were thus multiplied for traffickers in children. In order to suppress these evils and to aid in the hunt for any girls employed illegally as mui tsai, all alleged adopted daughters whose adoption is not made on the order of a competent court are automatically the statutory wards of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and have to be registered accordingly. Thereafter they are regularly visited by child welfare workers until they contract an approved marriage or reach the age of 21. Other children suspected of being in potential physical or moral danger are if necessary given the same protection.

Three religious organisations maintained Homes for the indigent aged, and a large number of old persons drew regular charitable relief from government or voluntary agencies. Welfare for blind girls or unmarried women was provided by a Roman Catholic and a Lutheran Home. new School for the Deaf had nearly 40 Cantonese children in residence, a number of them being almost penniless. Five of these voluntary agencies or organisations were subsidised by Government.

The

During 1949 the Police reported 91 cases of suicide, and referred a further 282 cases of attempted suicide to the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs where their histories were investigated and where they were offered appropriate help or guidance.

In January Government, after consultation with the Port Welfare Committee, revised that Committee's terms of reference so that they clearly covered the welfare of all visiting merchant seamen irrespective of race, creed or nationality. The new Committee included British, Chinese and Norwegian members. One of the Committee's principal activities during the year was the establishment of а Merchant Navy football field with a modern and well- equipped club-house on ground provided by Government near the Kowloon waterfront.

Family Cases

Machinery for countering the disintegration of families or the breakdown of home life arising from internal dissen- sion was often provided by the police stations where simple

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