3ecretary of St..te for the Colonies,
Downing 3treet,
LONDON.
?
Sir,
11th May. 1947.
170
is
We, the undersigned, all ambers of the Hong Kong Police Force, Proceeding on leave. after discussing our position, have decided in view of conditions in the Force, to bring to your notice the following matters which affect nearly all members of the pre-war Hong Kong Police Force.
Seniority.
..
The prent position with regard to this question is that seniority as between Inspectors and Sub-Inspectors is decided by salary. This more or less ensures that a between members of the pre-war Force the former order of seniority is ubstantially the same. How wever, since the re-gée pation of the Colony, large number of new men have been recruited principally from U.K. Forces, and these men are drawing a
alary calculated by assuming at the age of 26 years their salary vas 2260 per annum, and then adding the usual increments in accordance with their age.
Their position in the Leniority roll (a copy of which we attach) is therefore determined by their rate of salary and it will be seen that many of them have been superimposed in that roll on members of the pre- war Force. This we
submit is in c flict with a circular from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. G.H. Hall, dated October, 1945 (copy attached). We were a sured in that circular that we need have no apprehension that, in our absence fro the Colony on repatriation, "our interests would not be prejudiced." On tuis assurance alone we fail to see why newcomers to the Force should be con、idered en or to members who joined prior to the Pacific War. In addition, it is in direct contravention of General Order No. 12 of the Hong Kong Government, the effect of which is to lay down that seniority is determined by date of arrival in the Colony. On these two points we base our claim for a rvision of the existing eniority list for this question is one which is causing a lot of dissatisfaction among the pre-war members and that will exist until the matter i. remedied.
Salary.
The general question of Hong Kong Government salaries is under review by a newly appointed Salaries Commision. There is, however,
one ques ion which we wish to bring to your notice, and which is outwith the ter s of reference of that co mission.
Commencing from Jan. 1947, a new scale of salary was approved for members of the pre-war Force. the ostensible purpose being to bring them into line with the new members. In this scale a pre-war member is son.idered to have been drawing a salary of £260 at the age of 26 year wrdd some slight modification to secure the original order of seniority a.ong the pre war members. The minimun basic salary being £260 we submit that our salary should be based on that, and that service could count for increments from the date of joining. At present that is not the caso and most of us are losing two increments on this new scale. This like the seniority question is one which is, and will be, the cause of
dissatisfaction.
with no firevious service.
In pre-war days there were quite a number of men with previous Hoe Police Service recruited into the H.K. Police, but they were deemed to require the same coure of training in the Police Training School as those recruits We contend that we, with an average of over 10 years' Pol ne service in Hong Kong, are much more capable Police officers in Hong Kong_than any Folice officer freshly engaged from elsewhere.
This contention i. strongly borns out by our experience during the past year's Lervice