THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, JULY 13, 1928.
B
Regulations respecting Foreign Orders and Medals applicable to Persons NOT in the Service of the Crown.
281
Orders.
1. No subject of His Majesty shall accept or wear the Insignia of any Foreign Order without having previously obtained His Majesty's permission to do so, signified either:
(a.) By Warrant under the Royal Sign-Manual, or
(b.) By restricted permission conveyed through the Keeper of His Majesty's
Privy Purse.
2. When permission is given by Warrant under the Royal Sign-Manual, the Insignia of the Foreign Order may be worn at all times and without any restriction.
When restricted permission is given the Insignia may only be worn on the occasions specified in the terms of the letter from the Keeper of His Majesty's Privy Purse con- veying the Royal sanction.
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 the State itself. Such service must have been both of manifest and substantial value to the Head of the State or State con- cerned 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 a foreign Sovereign, the Head of a foreign State, or a member of a foreign Royal Fainily, and which are therefore of a more or less complimentary character, but will also be granted for Decorations conferred on other exceptional occasions, in the case of services of manifest and substantial value when not rendered direct to the foreign State, or when in the Public interest it is deemed expedient that they should be accepted.
Restricted permission will not be granted in the case of Decorations conferred for services rendered more than five years previously.
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. James.
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."
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, preced- ence, or privilege appertaining to a Knight Bachelor of His Majesty's Realms.