189
Police Headquarters, Hong Hong.
24th September 1947
PETITION TO THE SECRETARY OF STSTE FOR THE COLONIES THROUGH HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR OF HONG KONG AND THE COMMISSIONER OF POLICE, HONG KONG CONCERNING THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH POLICE OFFICERS FROM POLICE FORCES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM TRANSFERRED TO HONG KONG UNDER HOME OFFICE CIRCULAR 6572/55 OF 6.9.45 AS SUBSEQUENTLY AMENDED.
1.
We, the police officers of the United Kingdom who, in response to an appeal from the Colonial Office through the Home Office transferred in 1946 to the Hong Kong Police Force, seek improvement in the conditions under which we transferred and under which we are at present serving.
2.
We seek security; recognition of all our previous service and ranks; and a recognised transfer or secondment for all, as at present granted to a few.
3.
We feel that it would be proper to record the circumstances
under which we transferred to the Hong Hong Police.
4.0
In September/October 1945, in response to an urgent appeal by the Colonial Office, we volunteered to transfer from various Police Forces of the United Kingdom to that of Hong Mong in order to form the nucleus of a new Police Force on the liberation of the Colony from the Japanese.
5.
Indicative of the attractiveness of the Colonial Office Circular is the fact that over 800 policemen applied for appointment in this Force, some 158 being originally selected, Those interviewed were informed that owing to various factors deaths, normal retirements, lack of recruiting during war years, and more especially due to the privations suffered by most of the pre- war members of the Force because of internment as prisoners of war
few, if any of those pro-war members would be fit to resume duty here.
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6.
It was therefore obvious that EXPERIENCE) Police Officers were essential to run the entirely new Police Force which would then be formed; and that men with experience in all branches of police work would be necessary to efficiently man this resurrected Force; that the men selected as having the necessary technical and administrative ability would have several years of Police service behind them. In fact, men so chosen had from eight to fifteen years of such service and experience; several had rank, and many had qualifi- cations in such specialised subjects as Traffic, Fingerprints, Photography, Crime Records and Statistics, C. I.D., etc., etc.
7.
The original Circular stated that the ranks of Inspector and Sub-Inspector were open, and it was held out to us at our selection interviews that those of us with the more service and experience, and especially those of us with previous rank would obtain immediate promotion here, despite the fact that we were all transferred with the lowest European rank of Sub-Inspector.
8.
The fact that the salary one Officer accepted here was £90 p.a. less than that which he had been drawing from his previous Force bears out this point, for few men in a secure and pensionable position such as ours WAS, would throw it away for less salary and NO SECURITY.
9。
Our appointinents were in the nature of a transfer of fully trained policemen from the U.K. Police Forces to this Colony to set up an entirely new Police Force here, and not merely the recruiting of mon to augment an cxisting Force.
10.
It must be assumed that the men who transferred here did so believing that personal advancement would be their lot, for it is not logical that mon would throw away a secure and pensionable position for the original and temporary five-yoar contract. Some were given to believe that they would go straight on to the permanent and pensionable staff on arrival here, with chances of promotion greater than at home.
/ A five-year contract
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