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JAMES HAYES
mentions in despatches.32 On 1st May 1951, H.M. The King was pleased to approve the change of title of the Hong Kong Defence Force to be, in future, the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force and, in 1957, it was accorded the right to carry the battle-honour 'Hong Kong' like those Regular Infantry units that had taken part in the defence of the Colony. The Honour is worn on the Queen's Colour at present carried by The Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers).34
(c) The Post-War Period.
The Volunteer Ordinance was re-enacted in 1948, and again in 1951; only this time, for the first time in the history of volunteer soldiering in the Colony, the Corps, now under the new Ordinance styled the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force, had to absorb and train conscripts recruited under the Compulsory Service Ordinance of 1951, as well as volunteer members.
The new post-war Volunteer Ordinance of 1948 made a departure in that it created an infantry battalion to be known as "The Hong Kong Regiment", in addition to Force Head Quarters units. Whilst there had been a Machine Gun Battalion before the war it was more a collection of companies than a battalion organisation. As Colonel H. Owen Hughes who was the first C.O. of the new unit remarks, "The essential difference from the former H.K.V.D.C. was our establishment as an Infantry Battalion as opposed to the local formations of pre-war day, when the Corps had no proper Establishment but consisted of a number of independent and mostly support units, developed on an ad hoc basis". The 1951 Volunteer records that strength had crept up from 19 officers and 282 other ranks the previous year to 21 officers and 318 men, but was "still woefully short".36 It was at that juncture that the decision was taken by the Hong Kong Government to introduce a Compulsory Service Ordinance, since volunteers alone could not provide the numbers required.
32 Vol, 1954, p. 111. For war service in Hong Kong and elsewhere.
33 Vol, 1954, p. 111.
34 Vol, 1957, pp. 3 and 11-12. And now on the guidon carried by the Royal Hong Kong Regiment following the reorganisation mentioned in note 3 above.
35 Vol, 1964, pp. 42 and 45.
36 Vol, 1951, p. 31.