ENG-1958 — Page 218

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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

open new nurseries in the future. Staff training facilities available to the various bodies which run children's homes, day nurseries, etc. were supplemented for the first time in 1958 by a special six months' training course run jointly by the Y.W.C.A. and the Department, with qualified volunteer lecturers.

The Society for the Protection of Children operates five centres at which poor mothers are taught to look after their children properly and are given special food for them; over 5,000 children are regularly cared for at these centres.

The Protection of Women and Juveniles Ordinance, 1951, con- ferred extensive powers for the custody, guardianship and care of children in need of protection on the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. These powers had generally been exercised by the Social Welfare Officer. At the beginning of the year, when the Social Welfare Department was formally established, the powers conferred by the Ordinance were transferred to the Director. At the end of the year there were 233 statutory wards of the Director, 30 of whom were male wards by Order of the Juvenile Court. Under the Ordinance, girls who are adopted by Chinese custom must be registered with the Department and the Director automatically becomes their guardian; there were 1,768 registrations at the end of 1958. The customary adoption of sons is also recorded if the parents so wish; 1,486 such cases were on record. The welfare of many other children is the concern of the Department, either temporarily while their parents are in prison or in hospital or owing to ill treatment or family difficulties; or semi-permanently pending adop- tion, employment, marriage or majority; many of these are visited in their homes while others are in institutions with which close liaison is maintained. At the end of the year the total including wards was 6,451.

The Adoption Ordinance, 1956, which provides for adoption by Order of the Supreme Court is increasingly used; in 1957, its first full year of operation, 30 Orders were made and in 1958 85 Orders, while 95 applications were still in process.

The Department has co-operated closely with two voluntary organizations, International Social Service Incorporated and Catholic Relief Services, in arranging for the adoption of children abroad, principally into Chinese families in the United States. In some cases the Director, as legal guardian, was given special