-5The population increased to 2,500,000 in 1956 and reached over 3,000,000 by March 1960.9 12. It was against that background that the Social Welfare Office was established in 1948, providing rudimentary relief in kind, primarily in the form of cooked meals for the relief of refugees. As welfare assistance evolved, a residence requirement of 10 years was established as a condition of eligibility for public assistance.10 In 1958, the SWD was formed and it provided shelter for the destitute and continued to provide relief in the form of daily cooked meals and dry rations.11 A year later, in 1959, the residence requirement was reduced to five years. 13. The inadequacies of the system were recognized in a report on “Aspects of Social Security” prepared by an Interdepartmental Working Party in April 1967, and in March 1970, a Memorandum for the Executive Council12 pointed out that the then existing scheme: “... does not enable the need to be met adequately in a substantial proportion of cases. To some extent this is because the levels of assistance are too low. Mainly, however, this is because the form in which assistance is normally given, namely dry rations, takes no account of either the basic household needs required to maintain a minimum standard of living, or the special needs arising from any particular disability suffered by a member of a family.” 14. The Memorandum recommended a change of policy, arguing that “the stage of development now reached by Hong Kong justifies a more liberal policy, and one which more closely meets the needs of the indigent” and that, as the Working Party had recommended, “public assistance, in the form of financial aid, should be accepted as a responsibility of the Government to be 9 Mr Cheung’s Affirmation, §41. 10 Ibid, §23. 11 Ibid, §24. 12 XCC (70) 14, For discussion on 17 March 1970.