COPY
Ref:- 9/1682/47c
Sir,
ENCLOSURE II
34
COLONIAL SECRETARIAT,
HONG KONG,
30th April, 1948.
I am directed to acknowledge receipt of your letter of 5th February, 1948 forwarding a petition dated 28th January, 1948 from various members of the Indian Contingent of the Police Force and to inform you that His Excellency the overnor regrets that he is unable to accede to the petitioners' requests.
2. In signifying his inability to comply with the wishes of the petitioners, His Excellency directs me to point out that the revision of salaries from 1.1.46 and again from 1.1.47 was primarily designed to enable those officers who were in the Colony at the time to meet the high cost of living then prevailing in Hong Kong and adjustment in favour of the petitioners who being in India is not therefore applicable. Moreover, the majority if not all of the petitioners have been on full pay leave in India for periods greatly in excess of the leave for which they were eligible and in very many cases even exceeding two years.
They have thus received far more favourable and generous treatment than other classes of officers who were required to return to duty on expiration of their earned leave.
3. With regard to the petitioners' further request that their notices of retirement be withdrawn and that they should be allowed to return for further service, His Excellency regrets that in view of the necessity for reorganising the composition of the Police Force the government's decision in this matter is final.
4. On the further point mentioned by the petitioners that they should be granted pensions computed on the basis of service plus an abolition factor I am directed to say that their contention that such provision was inadvertently omitted from the Police Pension Regulations is not regarded as valid. The necessity for an enhanced pension on abolition of office does not arise in the Police Force since the pension factor which enables a policemen to be granted a higher pension, all things being equal, than othe government servants is based on the fact that they can normally retire from the service 10 years earlier.
5. I should be grateful if you would communicate the terms of this letter to the petitioners.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
Ujagar Singh, Esq.,
Rangoo Wall, Via Ahmed Garh,
Ludhiana,
sd. K.M.A. Barnett
DEPUTY COLONIAL SECRETARY.