The Force places great emphasis on the needs and benefits of playing sport for its officers.
Kingdom in June, the four-man team of the HKPSA Motor Sports Club took second place in the Service Trophy Team Competition, and won one silver and two bronze medals in individual competitions. In the Far East Championship Competition held in Brunei in August, the Police Rowing Club won three events and were runners-up in the Team Championship.
The Police Recreation Club at Wanchai Gap continues to provide a useful and pleasant social meeting place for officers. Social functions for members and their families are regularly held in the clubhouse.
The amalgamation of the Police Recreation Club and the Hong Kong Police Sports Association into a Force sports and recreational club is slowly progressing. The new com- bined clubhouse will be built on a site in Causeway Bay allocated by Government. A wider range of sporting and recreational facilities will be provided on the premises presently occupied by the HKPSA in Boundary Street, Kowloon, and the premises in Causeway Bay in the future. The long term aim is to provide similar facilities in the New Territories.
Civilian members of the Force may also join the associa- tion as members. They also have their own Police Civilian Staff Club which is very active in organising social, re- creational and sporting activities throughout the year.
The Bauhinia Society, comprising wives of Gazetted and Inspectorate officers, continued to organise many social functions, such as fashion parades, tea-parties, family out- ings and 'get-to-know-you' receptions for wives of newly- recruited officers. Members also provided valuable assist- ance to the Junior Police Call scheme and holiday projects of the Police Welfare Branch.
The Royal Hong Kong Police Old Comrades' Association was formed and registered in October 1977. The officers of this association are actively planning recruiting of mem- bers and planning organisation of social and recreational activities.
Force Housing
As part of the career package, the aim of the Force is to house all its officers and members of the Rank and File and, to this end, implementation of planned housing programmes continued during the year. The number of Rank and File married quarters available was 5,328 which, apart from
temporary vacancies, were fully occupied. A total of 1,622 families were on the waiting list. However, there are 1,670 quarters in the Public Works Programme. Construction of these projects had all commenced, and, in one or two cases, will be ready for occupation some time next year. The new quarters are situated at Kwai Chung and Sha Tin in the New Territories and at Ho Man Tin in Kowloon. Planning was also in hand for a complex of quarters on Hong Kong Island which, together with the other three projects, should meet current deficiencies.
A $5 million project was also carried out during the year to modernise the older complexes to bring them up to present-day standard.
Married Inspectorate officers are housed mainly in departmental quarters, either in complexes allocated wholly to the Force or in multi-departmental blocks. Again, the aim is to achieve further integration with other Government quarters. Single Inspectors are either housed in police stations, Government service flats or shared individual units.
A survey of single and married Inspectorate quarters was carried out during the year with a view to re-categoris- ing, where necessary, and securing accommodation appro- priate to various grades, and comparable with quarters occupied by other Government servants. Gazetted Officers now occupy non-departmental quarters, except for 23 GOs who are still occupying departmental quarters.
Consultative Councils
Two joint consultative councils were established in 1971 in order to ensure that effective consultation could take place between official and staff-side representatives on all matters relating to conditions of service.
The Senior Consultative Council includes in its member- ship three representatives of each of the three staff associa- tions representing the Inspectorate and the Superintendent grades, as well as official-side members. During the year the council met on four occasions and discussed a wide variety of subjects including matters relating to housing, rents and contract and retirement conditions.
The Rank and File are represented on the Junior Con- sultative Council with one representative from each of 29 Divisional Welfare Committees being members. This council is under the chairmanship of the Commander Personnel, and during 1977 a total of five meetings were held. The Junior Consultative Council continued to provide a useful forum for the exchange of views, and a wide range of topics were discussed during the year.
In October and November, in a series of meetings, a large number of police Rank and File expressed their opposi- tion to the alleged methods adopted by the ICAC in its investigations into corruption in the Force.
On October 28, these meetings culminated in a large assembly which marched to Police Headquarters and pre- sented, to the commissioner, a petition summarising griev- ances against the ICAC. Shortly afterwards, a group of about 40 went to the Operations Department of the ICAC where an affray took place.
During the following week, there was evidence of unrest in the Force. Early in November, the Governor announced a partial amnesty for corruption offences.
Other measures which were taken included: The confer- ring on the Commissioner of Police power to dismiss
13