HKK/14/8
UNCLASSIFIED
Protocol and Conference Department.
19 November, 1969.
Thank you for your letter (63) in CRI/2801/69 of 11 November about the award of the title "Royal" to the Hong Kong Police Forces.
2.
The answers to both your queriesare contained in the following:
"A formal submission, signed by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (the Rt. Hon. Michael Stewart, CH,MP) and dated 5 March 1969, requesting that the title "Royal" be accorded to the Hong Kong Police and Auxiliary Police Forces and that Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra be appointed honorary "Commandant General" of the two forces (Her Royal Highness having indicated that she would be pleased to accept such an appointment if Her Majesty so approved) was duly approved by Her Majesty The Queen.”
3. For your own information the preliminary mechanics, which I do not think need or indeed should be recorded in the Police Force Historical Records, were that once the Governor's recommendations were agreed in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, informal sub- missions were made to Buckingham Palace and, upon receiving a favourable reply, to Princess Alexandra, who also agreed. In short we enquired whether the proposals would meet with a favourable reply if submitted, this being the usual gambit in such matters. We reported this stage to you in our telegram No. 141 of 21 February.
4. You will notice that the passage I have suggested does not specify precisely the date on which Her Majesty gave her approval. This is because the submission bears only its own date (5 March 1969), The Queen having signified her agreement by writing "Appå. E.R." think therefore there is no option but to accept 5 March 1969 as the operative date. I do not doubt that in any case The Queen de alt with the matter expeditiously.
Brigadier R. G. Leuthwaite, .Colonial Secretariat,
Hong Kong.
(A.H. Ellis)
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