THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, AUGUST 27, 1926.
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3. The full and unrestricted permission by Warrant under the Royal Sign-Manual is designed to meet cases in which the Decoration has been earned by valuable-service rendered to the Head of the State conferring it, or to the State itself. Such service must have been both of manifest and substantial value to the Head of the State or State concerned and not inconsistent with British interests; and must have been rendered within the period of five years immediately preceding the notification of the Decoration to His Majesty's Government as prescribed under Rule 5.
4. Restricted permission is particularly contemplated for Decorations which have been conferred in recognition of personal attention to the Head of a Foreign State and which are therefore of a more or less complimentary character, but will also be granted for Decorations conferred on other exceptional occasions, when in the public interest it is deemed expedient that they should be accepted.
5. Both in the case of full and of restricted permission the matter will be submitted to the King by His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who shall be under no obligation to consider applications for permission unless the desire of the Head of a Foreign State to confer upon a British subject the Insignia of an Order is notified to him before the Order is conferred, either through the British Diplomatic Representative accredited to the Head of the Foreign State, or through the Diplomatic Representative of the latter at the Court of St. Jaines.
6. When His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs shall have taken the King's pleasure on any such application, and shall have obtained His Majesty's permission for the person in whose favour it has been made to wear the Insignia of a Foreign Order, he shall signify the same to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, in order that he may cause a Warrant, if it be a case for the issue of a Warrant as defined in Rule 2, to be prepared for the Royal Sign-Manual.
When such Warrant shall have been signed by the King, a notification thereof shall be inserted in the Gazette, stating the service for which the Foreign Order has been conferred.
Persons in whose favour such Warrants are issued will be required to pay to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department a stamp duty of 10s.
7. The Warrant signifying His Majesty's permission may, at the request and at the expense of the person who has obtained it, be registered in the College of Arms. Every such Warrant as aforesaid shall contain a clause providing that His Majesty's licence and permission does not authorise the assumption of any style, appellation, rank, pre- cedence, or privilege appertaining to a Knight Bachelor of His Majesty's Realms.
8. A British subject who has received the Royal permission, full or restricted, to accept and wear the Decoration of a Foreign Order, will, on application, receive permis- sion to accept the Decoration of a higher class of the same Order.
9. These Regulations apply only to Orders of Chivalry. Decorations conferred by Private Societies and Decorations of a purely academic nature, and all Decorations not being Orders of Chivalry, may be accepted without His Majesty's permission, but must not be worn.
Exception is made in the case of a few Foreign Orders, which, though not in strict- ness Orders of Chivalry, yet are of such a high distinction that, for the purpose of these Regulations, they are to be considered and treated as Orders of Chivalry.
Medals.
10. Medals, with the exceptions specified below, are subject to the Regulations in the same manner as Orders, but permission to wear is given by Letter and not by Royal Warrant. No permission is needed to accept a Foreign Medal if it is not to be worn.
11. Medals for saving or attempting to save life at sea or on land conferred on behalf of the Head or Government of a Foreign State may be accepted and worn without His Majesty's special permission.