17
Local Forces and Civil Defence Services
THE Colony's Auxiliary Defence Services consist of the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force, the Auxiliary Police Force and the Essential Services Corps. The Auxiliary Police, created during 1957 by a merger of the Hong Kong Police Reserve and the Special Constabulary, is dealt with in Chapter 13. The Essential Services Corps, although legally an entity, is split for adminis- trative and practical purposes into four autonomous Services: the Units of the Essential Services Corps proper, the Civil Aid Services, the Auxiliary Fire Service and the Auxiliary Medical Service.
All these services are paid for from funds voted each year by the Legislative Council and are made up from volunteers and from persons enrolled since the introduction in 1951 of compulsory service for locally resident citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies. Service in the auxiliary defence units is a considerable commitment not only to the individual concerned but also to his employer, and it is fortunate that on the whole employers are most co-operative in releasing members of their staff for these duties, even at considerable inconvenience.
Except for small administrative and training staffs, the Auxiliary Services are manned entirely by residents of the Colony who lead or attend training classes and exercises in the evenings or at the week-ends and, in the case of certain services, attend more extended training at annual camps which last up to fifteen days.
Training obligations vary from service to service. The greatest burden is in those units whose members must every year attend at least sixty instructional parades of one hour's duration, six full days' training and fifteen days' training at camp. The com- mitment is scaled down elsewhere to the needs of the particular unit. An allowance to cover out-of-pocket expenses is granted for attendance at instructional parades, while for a full day's training and for attending camp, officers and members receive a higher