27
21051/40
Persamel
not convinced that this is a valid claim yet he Conviter
rules that there is a certain justification for
the petitioners' contention that they considered
that their Home pension rights would be preserved.
In the correspondence with the Home Office
in our endeavour to straighten the tangled pension
position, it was made quite clear by the Home Office
that the order made by the Commissioner of Police,
distinguishing between the position of members of
the Metropolitan Police and members of other Forces,
was in error in stating that members of other Forces
are regarded as "seconded" with a pension contribu-
tion payable by the Hong Kong Government. It was
error because the circular issued by the Home
Office about recruitment for the Hong Kong Force
made it clear that any regular constables who came
forward would be required to resign their appointments,
but that in exceptional cases it might be possible
These
to accept some men on a secondment basis.
exceptional cases proved to be those one or two
County policemen who had made quite sure before
going to Hong Kong,that they would be seconded before
they accepted the Colonial employment.
It is of course quite wrong for any of the
petitioners, or the Governor for that matter, to
talk of "transfer" when dealing with Home policemen,
other than Metropolitan police. They are in entirely
different categories insofar as Metropolitan police
definition Public funds in the
come within the Superannuation Acts, and outside
Police forces do not.
I do not doubt that in the rush of their
recruitment they may have been led to believe that
better things were in store for them but that does
not alter the fact that when they resigned from
their