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256/3
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
CONFIDENTIAL
London SW1A 2AH
HKD 256/3
R S Barratt Esq. CBE, QPM
HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary
Home Office
50, Queen Anne's Gate
LONDON
11 August 1987
Der Barratt,
HONG KONG POLICE FORCE: FUTURE PROSPECTS
1.
Please refer to your letter of 31 July to the Overseas Police Adviser, which considered questions raised by the Hong Kong Commissioner of Police about the prospects of members of the Royal Hong Kong Police and their dependents. As a number of political factors are involved, I am replying to you on John Kelland's behalf.
2.
As you will have seen from the letter of 2 June from the Political Adviser in Hong Kong, the Commissioner has raised a number of separate issues, including future employment in the police forces of the UK or other Commonwealth countries. Your letter provides useful guidance on the criteria for appointment to UK forces. It also quite rightly points out that the immigration/nationality position of the individual applicant will be an important aspect for consideration at the time.
3.
However I think there is one other aspect which because of Hong Kong's domestic political situation needs to be explored more fully now. You refer to it briefly in the second paragraph of your letter. Officers of the Hong Kong Police, both expatriate (i.e. mainly UK-born) and local Chinese, have asked the Hong Kong Government to clarify whether, in the event that they continue to serve in the Hong Kong Police after 1997, they will thereby be debarred from subsequently serving in a British or Commonwealth police force on the grounds that they would have served a communist government (albeit indirectly).
4.
As you will appreciate, it is very much in the interests of HMG and the Hong Kong Government that we should be able to reassure police officers that their prospects would not be adversely affected in this way
CONFIDENTIAL