ENG-1969 — Page 288

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RELIGION AND CUSTOM

In the field of education, expansion continued. The La Salle Brothers are running the new Chan Sui Ki (La Salle) College in Ho Man Tin. New primary schools opened are: Ka Ling School of the Precious Blood Sisters and Ping Sek Catholic Primary School, both in Kowloon, Shek Lei and Tsuen Wan Catholic primary schools, both in Tsuen Wan. Extensions were made to Sung Tsun Middle School, Sai Kung and Ying Yin School, Yuen Long.

Catholics as in September 1969 number 241,813, over 90 per cent of them Chinese, spread out in 27 parishes on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, and in 15 rural districts of the New Territories.

Church personnel engaged in pastoral, educational and welfare work in Hong Kong include 345 priests, 109 religious brothers and 761 religious sisters, 38 religious Orders and congregations rep- resenting 32 nationalities.

There are at present 157 Catholic primary and secondary schools with an aggregate enrolment of 211,548 students.

Hong Kong's Jewish community worship at a synagogue in Robinson Road constructed in 1901 on land given by Mr Joseph Sassoon and his family. Mr Sassoon built the synagogue in memory of his mother Leah and it is known as the Synagogue ‘Ohel Leah'. The Jewish Recreation Club and the resident rabbi's apartments are on the same site. There are about 300 people in the congregation and they belong to families who originally came from the United Kingdom, China, India, Eastern and Western Europe, the United States, South Africa and Israel! !

There are more than 8,000 followers of Islam in Hong Kong, most of them Chinese who have come to the Colony during the past two decades. The other members of the Muslim community are mainly from Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Persia and from neighbouring regions. They gather for prayers at the Shelley Street and Wongneichong Road Mosques, on Hong Kong Island, and at the Nathan Road Mosque in Kowloon.

A board of trustees, comprising representatives of the various sects within the Muslim community, is the co-ordinating body for all religious affairs and is also responsible for the mosques and cemeteries. This board is in the process of being incorporated and