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to retire at the end of his fifth period of enlistment. He adds that he would not generally enlist a man for a sixth period of 5 years but he deprecates making any hard and fast rule on the subject. In these views I concur.
6. Paragraph 6. The present rule is that only Sergeants Inspectors and Chief Inspectors are entitled to free married quarters and free passages for wives and families.
The Petitioners ask that any member of the Force irrespective of rank should if he marries in England while on leave after his first period of 5 years service be provided with a free passage to the Colony for his wife and with married quarters in the Colony, and that after a further period of 5 years service that he should enjoy the privilege of free passages for wife and family.
This request is not reasonable and I cannot recommend it. It would involve the Colony in very heavy expendi- -ture. Moreover in a Constabulary Force such as the Hongkong, Police, it would be very undesirable to have an undue proportion of the Constables and Lance Sergeants living out of barracks. Some such arrangement as the latter would have to be made for few of the barracks are capable of being enlarged to provide additional married quarters. I am however, prepared to recommend that the privileges of the Free Passage Scheme recently extended to the Civil Service other than Police. be granted to not more than 12 married Lance Sergeants. There are at present 7 married Lance Sergeants accomodated in Police barracks and the grant of the privilege mentioned would materially assist them But it must be understood that Lance Sergeants will continue not to be entitled to free married quarters. The European Contingent of the Police is not recruited over its establishment. Therefore there is consider- -able lapsing pay due to members of it being absent on half-pay leave and to temporary vacancies caused by casualties. The grant of the privilege I refer to would not, it is calculated, cost the
Government
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