HISTORY OF MILITARY VOLUNTEERS IN H.K.
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mandant's annual report in the 1937 Year Book that there had been numbers of Chinese members serving in different units in the Corps before 1937.27 Some stimulus was required, and No. 4 Company's contribution to the 1938 Year Book tells us what it was. "Encouraged by the records of the Chinese units in the Shanghai and Malay Volunteers, Headquarters considered that the inclusion of a Chinese unit in the Hong Kong Defence Force was fully justified."28
This was a real innovation, even if it was partly brought about by the preparation for war and the search for more men. All through the 19th century and early 20th century, though it far outnumbered the European community, the Chinese element in the Colony, was considered to be the shifting sector of the population with the European element as the hard core. The fact that Chinese were willing to serve and were coming forward in numbers on a voluntary basis is a significant development, not only in the history of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps but of the Colony itself. These men were not coolies and street traders, but belonged to the settled middle-class that had developed in Hong Kong Chinese society over the years since 1841.
War came to Hong Kong in December 1941. Including auxiliary units, the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force had a mobilised strength of 2,200 at the Japanese Invasion.29 It played a memorable, and costly, part in the defence of the Colony and its members suffered along with their Regular comrades and civilian internees during three and a half years of imprisonment that included, for some, transfer to Japan to work in essential industry, like coalmines. The story of these years has been told elsewhere,30 but the fighting and the period as prisoners of war cost the H.K.V.D.F. the lives of 172 officers and men killed in action or died of wounds, 39 missing, believed killed, and 78 died as P.O.W. The Force was awarded 1 C.B.E., 1 D.S.O., 4 M.B.E.s, 3 M.C.s, 1 D.C.M., 6 M.M.s, 3 B.E.M.s and 18
27 Y.B., 1937, p. 6.
28 Y.B., 1938, p. 47. There is, however, a reference to 'all races' volunteering in 1914-18 for the forces and to serve with the Volunteers in Endacott, p. 284.
29 Vol, 1954, p. 112.
30 See note 6 above.
31 Vol, 1954, p. 111.