No. 1/1681/480
STAFF
42
227
Enclosure
Enclosure 2
Enclosure
Enclosure 4
No. 88.
Sir,
Ansund (ofpo
COLONIAL SECRETARIAT
HONG KONG.
25 November, 1948.
I have the honour to forward herewith a petition addressed to His Majesty the King by the European Inspectors' Association of the Hong Kong Police Force on the subject of the revised conditions of service for members of the Hong Kong Police Force introduced as a result of the recommendations of the Salaries Commission, 1947.
2.
As stated in paragraph 2 of the petition I received a petition from this Association on the same subject in April of this year and after very careful consideration directed that a reply be sent rejecting the majority of the points brought forward. Copies of the Association's petition of 19th April, 1948, and of the two letters sent in reply are enclosed. For facility of reference I also enclose a copy of a circular letter dated 29th January 1948, which was sent by the Establishment Officer to all European non-gazetted officers in the Police Force who were eligible for the revised terms of service, together with copies of Forms A to D which were used in notifying individual officers of their salaries on revision and in recording the options exercised by them.
3.
My detailed comments on the main points made in the present petition are as follows:-
Paragraph 3
It is misleading to state that "the revised salaries and conditions of service were not completely formulated" at the time petitioners were called upon to exercise their option. It is true that in January 1948 the amounts of certain allowances which the Salaries Commission had recommended that members of the Police Force should receive in certain circumstances had not all been fixed and that the necessary legislation to bring members of the Police Force under the terms of the Pensions Ordinance No.21 of 1932 had not been enacted but petitioners had been informed of all material changes proposed which would affect their conditions of service in the Establishment Officer's circular letter of 29th January, 1948, and extensions of time in which to opt were granted to individual officers throughout the Service on request, if it appeared in any particular case that a decision on some point of material importance to the individual officer was outstanding. It was naturally impossible to allow an officer to draw salary at the revised rates until he had exercised an unconditional and irrevocable option in favour of the new terms and conditions of service.
It was also impossible to give an individual officer or group of officers any choice except between the old terms and the new but acceptance of the new terms has not precluded individual officers or groups of officers from making subsequent representations for amendment of the new terms, if they have been able to make out a strong case for some modification of the Salaries Commission's original recommendations. Such representations after being reviewed by the Conditions of Service Committee referred to
(1) on 53723/3/48 in my telegram No.76 of 20th January, 1948, have been considered on
their merits and consideration has not been in any way influenced by the fact that an unconditional and irrevocable option has been exercised by the officer or officers concerned. The question of the retrospective application of the Commission's recommendations was very carefully considered before you approved of the date 1st January, 1947, and I am unaware of any special reasons which might justify more favourable treatment in the case of members of the Police Force, many of whom benefited financially from the change of their salary scales introduced in 1946.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ARTHUR CREECH JONES M.P.