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Your petitioners ask that two-thirds pay be granted to men whilst on leave. Men on leave have large expenses such as house rent etc. This is especially applicable
to married men.
Your petitioners ask that two days leave per month be allowed in lieu of one. The system of one day's rest in seven has been adopted in all Police Forces through- out England, and the climate of Hongkong is far more trying than that of at
Home. Most of the duty here is done at night time and the men get very few
whole nights in bed, and the condition of the streets after mid-night owing to the removal of the night-soil is very injurious to health more especially during the
hot weather.
Another grievance of great importance to which your petitioners wish to draw your Excellency's attention is the disgraceful accomodation provided for the Europeau
members of the Force.
This is particularly so in the case of the Central Station and at No. 5 Station where the majority of the men are stationed. The roof of the Central Station is in bad repair and having no ceiling freely admits rain to the sleeping quarters. At the Central Station some of the Europeans are quartered in rooms on the same floor and adjoining those occupied by Indian and Chinese police, whose personal habits and manners of living bear little or no comparison to those of your petitioners. It is impossible for men to obtain proper rest in close proximity to Asiatics playing musical instruments, smoking Indian pipes and playing dice on the verandahs immediately outside the door of the European bed-rooms. Some of the Europeans have to sleep in rooms situated over Sikh and Mahomedan temples where chanting and other unregulated attributes of zealous invocation take place at all hours. Further the close and familiar contact of Europeans and Asiatics cannot, it is respectfully submitted, but be detrimental to the discipline of a Police Force in which Europeans are the senior in all questions of
Police duty.
At the Central Station the cook-house for the food of the Europeans is situated at a distance of only 10 to 15 feet from the European and native closets and latrines.
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