LOCAL FORCES AND CIVIL DEFENCE SERVICES
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Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. The Corps was mobilized, about 1,400 strong, to meet the Japanese attack on the Colony on 8th December 1941 and fought with the regular forces against overwhelming odds until ordered to surrender on 25th December 1941. In 1956 their action was vividly recalled when part of the old Colours of the Corps, which had been buried in December 1941, to avoid capture by the Japanese, was discovered by work- men excavating a building site on Garden Road. The officers who had hidden the Colours had died in captivity, leaving no record of where the Colours might be found. The remnants of the old Colours were paraded on the Annual Review of the Defence Force in March 1958, and were afterwards laid up in St John's Cathedral. Decorations were conferred upon 15 members of the Corps for their gallantry in battle and for later escapes from Japanese prison camps in Hong Kong, while 18 were mentioned in despatches.
After the war the Corps was reconstituted on 1st March 1949, as the Hong Kong Defence Force. Two years later, His late Majesty King George VI granted the title 'Royal' in recognition of the part played by the Force's forerunner, the Volunteer Defence Corps, in 1941. In March 1957, Her Majesty the Queen awarded the Battle Honour 'Hong Kong' to the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force, and this Honour is now emblazoned on the Regimental Colour.
The Essential Services Corps proper consists of a number of units, each responsible for maintaining an essential service such as the supply of electricity, water, communications, etc. Each unit is principally staffed by persons already employed in the service but is reinforced as necessary by others. Since in an emergency most members would continue to perform duties in which they are already expert, the Corps requires little extra training. The Corps is normally under the general direction of a leading member of the business community who is assisted by a small staff of full- time Government servants in carrying out administration, planning and liaison with units.
The Auxiliary Medical Service is organized to provide first aid, reinforce Government and private medical establishments, and provide an augmented ambulance service in an emergency. It is built around the Medical and Health Department, the St John Ambulance Brigade and other members of the medical and nursing