At Wufeng village in Taichung County in central Taiwan stands a two-story white building. Inside, a spacious lobby is gracefully laid out with milky white walls and ceiling, yellow curtains and furniture. Sitting by the rough tables are two middle-aged men, one smoking, the other having a cup of tea, both chatting casually. Nearby, two young men concentrate on a chess game. To the right of the lobby is an open-shelf mini-library, and to the left is a reading room in which newspapers and magazines are displayed. A counter placed at a corner of the lobby serves as an office desk.

It was an evening in December 1979. The phone rang. A Mr. Chang answered.

"Hello, Wufeng public service branch office here."

"Hello, I am a resident of Fengku town. I read in the paper that your office offers help to any body in trouble. Is that true?"

"It is indeed. What can we do for you, Mr. Ho?"

"Well, I live in a new community accommodating some 380 persons. We were cheated by the builders, since they failed to lay on a water supply."

"This sounds serious. Please give me your address, so that I can call on you. I will see to it right away."

After an on-the-spot investigation, Mr. Chang discovered that some parts of Fengku town were supplied with tap water by pumping it from underground into a reservoir, and distributing it through a pipeline. However, the quality of the ground base allowed only limited amounts of water to be pumped. As a result, a sudden increase in population had led to water shortage.

After obtaining an overall picture, the Wufeng public service branch office reported to the Taichung Provincial Government, the public office in Wufeng village and the Taiwan Provincial Water Supply Bureau. These units decided to share the NT$1.5 million construction cost to install a main water pipeline to the village from across the Kan River.

As soon as the water shortage problem was solved, Mr. Ho again went to the public service branch office to seek help in constructing a bridge across the Kan River. Residents of the Fengku community had to make a detour to reach the other side of the river. One road in the town is so narrow that it can only be used one-way. To save time, residents and their children waded across the stream, often at great personal risk.

The Wufeng public service branch office immediately reported on the situation to the higher authorities, and the Taiwan Provincial Government and Taichung County Government decided to construct a concrete bridge across the River.

Grass-roots unit: At present, there are 340 public service offices in every village, town, city and district in Taiwan. The offices are grass-roots units set up by the Kuomintang to serve as the party's work centers.

In general, the service units at provincial and county levels are in charge of guidance and planning work, while those at lower levels are in immediate contact with the public. As soon as he took over as chairman of the Kuomintang headquarters in Taiwan, Soong Shih-hsuan placed priority on the work of the public service offices.

Soong first ordered all the branch offices to overhaul old buildings, repaint and redecorate their premises, and install such modern facilities as television and stereo sets, tables, chairs, tea sets, books and drinking-water machines to provide better environment for public recreation.

He hoped that by improving working conditions, he could encourage staff to give better service to the public. He wanted all workers to abandon bureaucratic methods, and be close to the people so they could offer timely assistance in solving problems.

To set an example, Soong spends every Saturday and Sunday visiting villages to talk with the people and discover their true situation. So far, he has visited 336 branch offices on the island, some of them on as many as 20 occasions. Wherever he goes, he always encourages the staff to adopt a kindly and gentle attitude and a missionary spirit to solve the public's problems.

Soong frankly admitted that working conditions are not yet satisfactory, but he believed that employees are sincere in making improvements. "If people gave them more encouragement in return for the services they receive, things would be even better," he said.

Service categories: To help people understand more fully the achievements of service work, every branch office has erected a sign- board to list services offered. A breakdown is as follows:

1. Activity center: Reading room, conference room, library, study room, auditorium, table tennis room, and badminton court are open for public use.

2. Recreational activities: Travel, mountain-climbing, ball games, painting, singing and visiting major national construction sites are among some of the activities regularly sponsored by the service office.

3. Classroom activities: Every night, weekend or holiday, the public service office cooperates with the Lions' club, the Junior Chamber (Jaycees) and women's clubs to sponsor such activities as flower arrangement, cooking, folk dancing, music, calligraphy, paper-cutting, photography, typing, language and make-up courses.

4. Law consultations: The public office helps people solve legal problems connected with the census, land, military service, tax and police affairs.

5. Emergency aid: The public office cooperates with local volunteers to offer timely assistance in the case of emergencies such as natural calamities and epidemics.

Other services include professional lectures, public welfare measures, job placement, cultural exhibitions, scholarships, mediating in public conflicts and helping to fill in application forms.

Except for transport and textbook charges for classroom courses, all services are provided free of charge. Salaries for full-time workers are paid by provincial public service offices, and all activities are based on the principle of "take from society and use in society." Philanthropic people give their money and time to establish a "grass-roots voluntary service commission." Volunteer workers can choose which services they will offer according to their skills, interests, and time schedules.

Opinion poll: To make sure the public's needs are met, many public service branch offices have organized opinion polls to help plan services. For instance, the branch office at Taipao in Chiayi County conducted two driving courses in the first half of last year, and all the 60-odd students taking part obtained driving licenses. Later, the office sponsored a seminar on traffic regulations to promote road safety.

Recently, service offices island- wide have cooperated with the China Youth Corps, schools, activity clubs and factories to set up the "social education workshop," with workers as the major service target. Though established only a year, the workshop has helped workers to build up an optimistic and outgoing philosophy of life, and provided them with healthy recreation and research services. The some 5,000 workers at Huatan in Changhua County have been among those to benefit from such services.

In order to develop fully their functions, branch offices offer different types of work in the city and countryside, and in fishing villages, industrial districts and mountain areas. In urban areas, more emphasis is placed on the establishment of research classes and recreational activities; while in industrial districts, job placement services and psychological hygiene seminars are organized.

The improvement of personnel quality coupled with renovation measures at public offices, have enabled the Kuomintang to make important progress in winning support from the people.

[Picture Caption]

1. Three residents of Minhsiung in Chiayi County leave a public service branch office after being helped to solve a dispute. 2. On the walls of the courtyard of Taipao public service branch office in Chiayi County are hung many well-used farming instruments as decoration and teaching materials. 3. As chairman of the Kuomintang headquarters in Taiwan, Soong Shih-hsuan spends his weekends visiting villages to talk with the people and discover at first hand their living conditions 4. & 5. Conference room and well- furnished lobby are open for public use. 6. The public office staff adopt a kindly and gentle attitude in their direct contacts with the people.

The public service branch offices sponsor such classroom activities as make-up, paper-cutting, zither playing and folk dancing.

Playing chess and badminton and reading newspapers and magazines are among the recreational activities provided for the public.

As chairman of the Kuomintang headquarters in Taiwan, Soong Shih-hsuan spends his weekends visiting villages to talk with the people and discover at first hand their living conditions.

Conference room and well- furnished lobby are open for public use.

Conference room and well- furnished lobby are open for public use.

The public office staff adopt a kindly and gentle attitude in their direct contacts with the people.

The public service branch offices sponsor such classroom activities as make-up, paper-cutting, zither playing and folk dancing.

The public service branch offices sponsor such classroom activities as make-up, paper-cutting, zither playing and folk dancing.

The public service branch offices sponsor such classroom activities as make-up, paper-cutting, zither playing and folk dancing.

The public service branch offices sponsor such classroom activities as make-up, paper-cutting, zither playing and folk dancing.

Playing chess and badminton and reading newspapers and magazines are among the recreational activities provided for the public.

Playing chess and badminton and reading newspapers and magazines are among the recreational activities provided for the public.

Playing chess and badminton and reading newspapers and magazines are among the recreational activities provided for the public.