人
PERSONAL
54247/9/49
Dear Sir Alan,
36 3
8th October, 1949.
This letter accompanies an official letter to you submitting a petition to His Majesty from the European Inspectors Association of the Hong Kong Police Force. There has been an unusually long delay in submitting this petition, and I thought that you would probably wish to be able to give His Majesty some explanation of the reasons both for the delay and for my Secretary of State's decision on the matters contained in the petition itself. I did not however wish to trouble you by a telephone call to Balmoral and therefore I send you this personal letter.
The petition reached us, with the Governor's comments upon it, on the 2nd December, 1948. It was immediately considered in the Department here but was not submitted to His Majesty at once for two reasons:-
(a) An official committee was at the time carrying out a thorough investigation in Hong Kong into cost of living allowances. The result of this committee's work would clearly have an important bearing on the
petitioners' contention that their total emoluments were inadequate; and, in point of fact, following on the committee's report, very substantial increases in cost of living allowances were later approved with effect from the 1st January, 1949.
(b) It was felt that the petitioners' claim that previous police service in the United Kingdom should be counted towards pension called for sympathetic consideration. As it had been established that the County and Borough authorities concerned could not regard the men recruited from their Forces in 1945 for the Hong Kong Police as being on secondment, it was clear that, if any concession were to be made, the Hong Kong Goverment would have to assume responsibility for some
/proportion
The Right Honourable
Sir Alan Lascelles,
Q.c.V.O., K.C.B., C.M.G., .C.
.C.B.