57
P.58
No special instructions have been issued to Indian or other
members of the Force as to how to deal with amok cases be cou se
the circumstances of each case must vary so widely that one set
of instructions could not cover them. Every man would know
however that a police constable who ran amok and started attempt-
ing to commit or committing murder could be shot down at sight.
In our Indian contingent we have about equal numbers of Sikhs
and Mahommedans, but it would be very difficult and expensive to
divide up the Indian strength of each out station in the same
way. It would mean separate Sergeants, separate cooking and
washing arrangements, and many other difficulties would arise.
In my opinion the presence of Indians of more than one faith in
a Station would not be a safeguard against such occurrences.
In the absence of the European office in Charge everything
depends on the initiative of the Senior Indian who has to make
up his mind very quickly.
In this case L.S.B.349 in my opinion carried out his initial
duties up to a point. On the alarm he appears to have got his
men armed. It is pretty clear however that he failed to guard
the charge room and this made it possible for B.543 to get at
the Lewis Gun. That gun incidentally was formerly kept upstairs.
All the N.T. Stations on or near the frontier are protected by
barbed wire fences owing to the possibility of surprise attacks
from Chinese territory. This scheme dates from 1913 when the old
Cheung Chau station was attacked by pirates. That is why alerm
stations are fixed and alarm duties practiced every week.
As regards July 21st, had I myself arrived earlier I should have
hesitated to attempt to rush the station. I knew that the Station
was so surrounded that B.543 could not escape. I consider that
the A.S.P..N.T. and later the D.8.P.K. were justified in not
attempting to rush the station earlier. Such attempts might
have caused unnecessary loss of life, and it was better to delay
any attempt until such time had elapsed without firing from
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