CO129-612-2 Police Department- petition from European memebers of Inspectorate 29-1-1948 - 22-7-1949 — Page 234

233

A

additional and irrecoverable expense.

(g) Their duties are often dangerous. They are under active service conditions and must at

all times when on duty carry revolvers.

(h) In this Colony armed robberies and serious disturbances frequently occur resulting in

officers being recalled to duty and to their exposure to danger and to their recourse to the use

of firearms.

18.

That in the past the above conditions have been recognised in that Police were allowed to retire

on full pension on serving for 25 years or 75% of the service required of other Government Servants for pension. That this principle is recognised in England as for example under the Police Pensions Act 1921

Section 10 where it is provided that three years police service shall be equivalent to four years service as

a civil servant or officer of the staff of the Metropolitan Police Force or vice versa. That this important

privilege is now withdrawn on the recommendation of the Salaries Commission that Police must accept the same

pension conditions as other members of the Government service, including Asiatic members, and that this recom-

mendation is at variance with the recommendation of Colonial White Paper 197 of 1947 in which it is stated

"the expatriate officers, whose "working life" is as a rule shorter than that of an officer serving in his

own country would if the same pension factor is applied earn the smaller pension of the two". Further that

the new conditions of service will require them to serve for 33 and 1/3rd years if they wish to qualify for

full pension, and that such conditions for European Police serving in a tropical country is manifestly unfair.

Further that in the United Kingdom, Police have the recognised privilege of serving only 75% of the time for

pension that is required of other Government Servants, and that were this condition to obtain in Hong Kong,

Police would be permitted to retire on full pension on serving the Crown for 25 years. Further, Police may

be required to retire on attaining the age of 45 years, whether they have qualified for pension or not, and

that this condition may result in certain officers transferring from Police Force of the United Kingdom from

qualifying for pension at all, but may oblige them to retire with a small gratuity after serving the Crown

for continuous periods of up to 25 years. That Your Petitioners submit that these conditions alone should

give Police Officers the right to reconsider the option given in Form A above referred to.

19. That the revised conditions of service provide that officers who joined since 1945 will be offered

an appointment on probation to the permanent establishment with effect from the 1st of January 1947. That

this condition creates a hardship upon those experienced police officers who were especially recruited in

London from the Metropolitan and other Police Forces of the British Isles for the purpose of assisting in the

reconstruction of this Force, and that these officers surrendered their personal prospects in the interests of

the Crown and should not now be adversely affected so as to lose all their service prior to 1st January 1947.

20.

That the Courts have held on many occasions that a Police Officer on duty is an officer of the

Crown and is not a servant of any particular Watch Committee, or Municipal Council. That in transferring from

one Police force to another an officer transfers from one branch of service under the Crown to another and

it follows that all his service under the Crown should account in the calculation of his pension.

21.

That the Police (No.2) Regulations 1948 of the United Kingdom paragraph 3 provide that the Police

Authority shall take the whole of a constable's previous service into account if he transfers from one police

5

ITF