Secretariat File No.1/1681/48.
SAVINGRAM
To the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
From the Governor, Hong Kong.
(29)r(31) on '48.
unod you /00 File
A
Date
2011.
July, 1949.
No.
324
STAFF
CONFIDENTIAL
50
Your confidential telegrams Nos.247 of 2nd March and
676 of 3rd June, 1949: Police Petition.
1.
Subject to the concurrence of Legislative Council, I am prepared to accept full pension liability in respect of police service in the United Kingdom of former members of County and Borough Forces who were recruited in 1945 for service with the British Military Administration in Hong Kong, in order to bring them into line with former members of the Metropolitan Police. This concession will take the form of a supplementary pension calculated in the manner in which pensions are normally assessed in these county and borough forces and payable in due course to those officers who qualify for a pension from Hong Kong funds under the ordinary pension law, in the same way as former members of the Metropolitan Police will receive a supplementary pension from U.K. funds, based on their salaries and length of service in that force, upon retirement from service in this Colony. The concession will be strictly confined to police officers from county and borough forces who were recruited in 1945 and it will, of course, be dependent upon receipt of the refund of pension contributions made to these officers when they resigned from their home forces on appointment to Hong Kong. I appreciate that no contribution can be expected from the local authorities concerned.
2.
Provision for these supplementary pensions will be made by special legislation under which the names of the officers concerned will be detailed in a schedule, as I consider that it would be unwise to provide for these pensions under the ordinary pension law by regarding service with Borough or County Police Forces as public service. The difficulty of attempting to confine a definition of public service to service in police forces is obvious.
3.
I agree that this Government should accept the full pension liability of these officers (and not merely a proportion thereof) in order that they may receive, as far as possible, the same treatment as has been given to former members of the Metropolitan Police recruited at the same time. In this way, I hope, no fresh anomaly will arise, although the supplementary pension of a former member of the Metropolitan Police may not be exactly the same as that of a former member of a
I County or Borough force with the same number of years service. consider that some of the men recruited from County and Borough forces in 1945 had grounds for supposing that their pension rights would not You will be entirely abrogated on resignation from the parent force. appreciate, however, that I am not willing to extend this concession to former members of the Shanghai Police or to any officers from County and Borough forces in the United Kingdom other than those whose names are contained in the list attached hereto, notwithstanding that officers recruited from the Metropolitan Police may still receive preferential treatment in respect of pension rights as compared with men from other forces. I assume that the latter are now left in no doubt when accepting appointment to this Colony that their United Kingdom service cannot constitute a pension liability on this Government.
4.
I should be grateful if you would arrange with the various police forces concerned for pension computations to be made on the above basis and would forward these computations together with a statement of
I the refund of contributions made to each of the officers concerned. will then have the special legislation prepared for submission to Legislative Council, provided the officers concerned are willing to refund the contributions made to them.