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A
additional and irrecoverable expense.
(g) Their duties are often dangerous. They are under active service conditions and must at
all times when on duty carry revolvers.
(h) In this Colony armed robberies and serious disturbances frequently occur resulting in
officers being recalled to duty and to their exposure to danger and to their recourse to the use
of firearms.
18.
That in the past the above conditions have been recognised in that Police were allowed to retire
on full pension on serving for 25 years or 75% of the service required of other Government Servants for pension. That this principle is recognised in England as for example under the Police Pensions Act 1921
Section 10 where it is provided that three years police service shall be equivalent to four years service as
a civil servant or officer of the staff of the Metropolitan Police Force or vice versa. That this important
privilege is now withdrawn on the recommendation of the Salaries Commission that Police must accept the same
pension conditions as other members of the Government service, including Asiatic members, and that this recom-
mendation is at variance with the recommendation of Colonial White Paper 197 of 1947 in which it is stated
"the expatriate officers, whose "working life" is as a rule shorter than that of an officer serving in his
own country would if the same pension factor is applied earn the smaller pension of the two". Further that
the new conditions of service will require them to serve for 33 and 1/3rd years if they wish to qualify for
full pension, and that such conditions for European Police serving in a tropical country is manifestly unfair.
Further that in the United Kingdom, Police have the recognised privilege of serving only 75% of the time for
pension that is required of other Government Servants, and that were this condition to obtain in Hong Kong,
Police would be permitted to retire on full pension on serving the Crown for 25 years. Further, Police may
be required to retire on attaining the age of 45 years, whether they have qualified for pension or not, and
that this condition may result in certain officers transferring from Police Force of the United Kingdom from
qualifying for pension at all, but may oblige them to retire with a small gratuity after serving the Crown
for continuous periods of up to 25 years. That Your Petitioners submit that these conditions alone should
give Police Officers the right to reconsider the option given in Form A above referred to.
19. That the revised conditions of service provide that officers who joined since 1945 will be offered
an appointment on probation to the permanent establishment with effect from the 1st of January 1947. That
this condition creates a hardship upon those experienced police officers who were especially recruited in
London from the Metropolitan and other Police Forces of the British Isles for the purpose of assisting in the
reconstruction of this Force, and that these officers surrendered their personal prospects in the interests of
the Crown and should not now be adversely affected so as to lose all their service prior to 1st January 1947.
20.
That the Courts have held on many occasions that a Police Officer on duty is an officer of the
Crown and is not a servant of any particular Watch Committee, or Municipal Council. That in transferring from
one Police force to another an officer transfers from one branch of service under the Crown to another and
it follows that all his service under the Crown should account in the calculation of his pension.
21.
That the Police (No.2) Regulations 1948 of the United Kingdom paragraph 3 provide that the Police
Authority shall take the whole of a constable's previous service into account if he transfers from one police
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