CO129-569-5 Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps- pay for volunteers on mobilization 26-10-1938 - 20-4-1939 — Page 3

3

Thee an

separate company

in the HX VDC

on a racial bar's MG

discrimination in the matter of pay accorded to European and non-European members on mobilization.

It would probably be a different matter if there were separate military volunteer formations, e.g. a unit confined to European membership only and another recruited solely from Chinese and Indians. In that case, it would be possible to fix appropriate rates

of pay for each formation.

What the W.0.probably has in mind is that X rate of pay which is appropriate to European standards is an over-payment to members of non-European status. That may be so if you apply it to different units but I do not think that it is wise or right to attempt a racial discrimination between members of a common unit.

It is a matter in which the W.0.should be consulted as proposed, but I should have thought that before communicating views of this kind to the military authorities in Hong Kong the War Office would have consulted this Department. After all, the H.K.V.D.F. Corps is constituted under a local ordinance and is not under the direct administration of the W.0.

S. J. Core

17-11-

35

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