CO129-612-2 Police Department- petition from European memebers of Inspectorate 29-1-1948 - 22-7-1949 — Page 186

proportionate part of our eventual pensions.

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we all transferred here with the consents of the Chiefs

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of our respective Forces and have received pay from the date following that on which we ceased to serve in our original Force from this Government, or initially, from the British Military Admin. Therefore the two main conditions of recognised transfers from one Police Force to another have been observed.

The new retiring age suggested by the Salaries Commission may well be 45 years of age when few, if any of those men transferred from the U.K. will have served here for a sufficient length of time to qualify for a pension UNLESS their previous Police service is recognised here, Accordingly, many of these Officers will have served the Government as Police Officers for a lifetime, and yet will not secure the pension which is the chief attraction of the Police Service. Even those few younger members who may eventually gain a pension here in Hong Kong will secure a pension that will bear no true relation to their total Police Service and may well be quite inadequate to their needs.

The Government of Hong Kong has recognised our previous Police Service by immediately employing us upon police duties without any kind of local training, and by placing us upon salary scales which are above efficiency bars, but persistently declines to recognise that service for any other reason or purpose.

We understand that a large number of Police Officers from Palestine have been transferred to the Metropolitan Police Force in London, and to other Forces, with the recognition of their previous ranks and service.

If this is so, surely the same recognition could be arranged for us under exactly the same conditions?

I therefore pray you to exercise your help on our behalf by taking up the matter with the appropriate Ministers of State, and by pointing out to them that there exists here in Hong Kong the legal machinery necessary for the recognition of our previous Police service for pension purposes, and that the new Police Pensions Bill of the United Kingdom permits our previous Police Authorities to assume responsibility for our eventual pensions by recognising our transfers here, although this may have, in some cases, to be done retrospectively.

1 am, etc.