242
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
had buried the Colours subsequently died in captivity, leav- ing no record of where the Colours could be found.
After the war the Corps was reconstituted on 1st March, 1949, as the Hong Kong Defence Force. Two years later, the title Royal was awarded to the Force by His late Majesty King George VI in recognition of the part played by the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps in the defence of Hong Kong.
Constituted by Ordinance, the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force is a combined force comprising a naval, a military and a flying component. Men and women of different races and nationalities serve side by side in each unit. The Force consists partly of volunteers and partly of conscripts enrolled after the introduction of compulsory service for citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies in 1951. The main units of the force are the Hong Kong Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve which mans and operates three craft; the Hong Kong Regiment, with the strength and equipment of a nor- mal infantry battalion; Force Headquarters Units, compris- ing a heavy-mortar platoon and other specialist formations; the Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force equipped with a squadron of aircraft; the Home Guard; the Hong Kong Women's Naval Volunteer Reserve; the Hong Kong Women's Auxiliary Army Corps; and the Hong Kong Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
Training obligations vary in the different units. In most units members must attend every year at least sixty instruc- tional parades of one hour's duration, six full days' training and fifteen days' training at camp. During the year it was decided to reduce training obligations for efficient members of the Force with more than five years' service; but nearly all of these continued voluntarily to parade for the full train- ing programme. An allowance is granted for attendance at instructional parades, while for a full day's training, and for attending camp, officers and members are paid at the rate for regular officers and men of equivalent rank. The officers of
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