PREAMBLE
Due to my retirement in August 1965, after 32 years service, this will be my last Annual Report, and I am, therefore, taking the unusual step of prefacing my report with a few personal comments.
A quotation of the late Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, namely 'Never in the field of human conflict. . .' could with justice be applied to members of the Hong Kong Fire Services.
Since 1960, when factual statistics discriminating between 'actual rescues' and merely leading persons to safety were first introduced, the Hong Kong Fire Service has rescued more than 3,000 persons from certain death or fatal injuries. During the same period 2 members of the Service died as a result of injuries sustained in the course of their duties and 376 were injured and hospitalized.
Although spectacular fires and special services make headline news, in general the Fire Service is very much (if one excludes its sirens!) a silent Service. The major proportion of its work goes on unseen in the anonimity provided either by nightfall; the unlit stairways and corners of a smoke laden building; the depths of wells; the bowels of a ship, or in the frightening isolation of dense smoke on the top round of a turntable ladder.
Looking back over the past 7 years in Hong Kong, I shall always be grateful for the opportunity of commanding what I believe to be the most hardworking, patient, and courageous of all men I have served with, namely the Chinese Fireman.
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