CO129-612-1 Police Department- petition from European memebers of Inspectorate 21-1-1947 - 17-2-1948 — Page 35

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consideration.

as seconded.

secondment terms (with preservation of pension rights) were under It is possible that the recruiting officers, who at that time were under considerable pressure from the British Military Administration to accelerate the arrival of recruits, may have painted a more rosy picture of the probability of secondment conditions being approved than was in the event justified. At this date and at this distance it is impossible to be more specific, but there seems to be a moral obligation to reopen the question of secondment terms if at all possible. An additional reason for this is that in your reply to a letter of Mr. J.R. Battley, M.P., ( a copy of which was forwarded under cover of your despatch No. 5 of 7th January, 1947), you in- formed him that officers of the county police forces were regarded

This reply was communicated to the petitioners by Inspector Richard Brown and they were naturally surprised by the notification to the contrary, the draft of which was forwarded to you in my telegram 1184 and subsequently approved for publication in your telegram No. 1281 of 12th August, 1947. I therefore recommend that the Home Office be approached once again with the request that the county police forces from which these officers came should be asked to regard their officers as seconded to Hong Kong for a period of three or five years, on terms similar to those granted to Mr. E.J. Crapp. In this connection reference is invited to your savingram No. 474 of 24th June, 1947. This Government is willing to pay the requisite pension contribution in respect of the period of service of the officers in Hong Kong, assuming that such contribution will be refunded to this Government should the officers be placed on the per- manent and pensionable establishment here. I understand that there are difficulties involved in the award of a pension for officers transferred from county or borough police forces but the petitioners point out that transfer is possible in the United Kingdom between such forces with preservation of pension rights, and I hope that it may be possible to make a similar arrangement in respect of officers transferred to Hong Kong. The petitioners also request that should they return to duty with their previous police forces, they will be reinstated at the appropriate point in their original salary scales, and will not less seniority or promotion by reason of their secondment to Hong Kong. I shall be grateful if sympathetic consideration could be given to this point.

5. With regard to the second point on which the Inspectors feel aggrieved, that is to say that they were led to expect an increase in rank in Hong Kong, the majority of the petitioners were constables in the United Kingdom but a few were sergeants or acting sergeants. On. arrival in Hong Kong, they were all graded as sub-inspectors, in conformity with the policy of abolishing the grades of constable and sergeant in the European ranks of the Police Force. It will take time before the se newly appointed sub-inspectors are ready to fulfil all the duties of this rank, but there is no doubt that in the course of a few years they will be holding fully responsible positions provided they have the requisite ability.

6. When these officers were appointed the method of calculating their salaries on appointment was made quite clear to them, and was set out fully in paragraph 4(f) of the memorandum on conditions of service which was attached to the Home Office circular to which the petition refers. It has been suggested by the Commissioner of Police that a fairer method of calculating initial salary would be to count half pre- vious approved service for assessing the initial salary, and that the opportunity presented by the adjustment of salaries on the approval of the Salaries Commission recommendations should be taken to make the necessary adjustment. This would mean that certain officers would re- ceive less increments on the new scale than they receive now, and the