ENG-1966 — Page 29

6

REVIEW

permanent rehabilitation and the restoration or creation of inde- pendence were much less in evidence than they now are and accept- ance of a professional approach to social work was still a thing of the future. Total government expenditure through the Social Welfare Office and in subventions to voluntary agencies was then less than $4.5 million.

In every sphere, in varying degree, the story is the same; a start made, a vista of need as yet unmeasured. For it was not until five years later, in 1961, that the first census in 30 years provided some, at least, of the statistics required for planning. Peering into the future, the writer of the review chapter for 1956 had this to say:

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'And then there are the social services. How is one to hope to integrate these new communities, which government is creating as fast as its resources will allow, into the existing social system unless a special and equally comprehensive effort is made throughout the whole range of social welfare? More land is needed for industry; trade relations become vital. The potentialities, as has been said, are both good and bad. More prisons are needed, more courts of justice, a large and more mobile police force, an inflated administrative machine. Some element in all these requirements is directly attributable to what has been done, and is still being done, in this single sphere of resettlement. It is perhaps not too much to say that the people of Hong Kong have pledged a portion of their future for the benefit of strangers who took refuge here; and sometimes it almost looks as if they are also required to pay interest on the pledge at compound rates'.

A DECADE OF PROGRESS

From an estimated 2.5 million in 1956 the population has risen to 3.79 million, imposing further burdens on the social services. Since it began in 1954, the resettlement programme has resettled over 900,000 people, the great majority being squatters on land required for development, but with some provision being made on an increasing scale for the resettlement of persons who are not squatters. While the basic purposes of resettlement have changed little, if at all, and the basic allocation of space for each adult is