Reference...
34)
Mr.
Mis
Commonwealth Policy and Planning Department
Please see /30 about the grant of the title "Royal" to the Hong Kong Police. We await the views of the Foreign Office on likely Chinese reaction but in the meantime we should like to find out what procedure would be necessary if it were decided to proceed with the idea and what chance there would be of success. I should be grateful for your department's views.
Norman A. Smith
N.A.SMITH
23 September 1968
Mr. Smith (Hong Kong Department)
In 1946 it was agreed that the following general principles should be adopted in respect of the grant of the title "Royal":
(a)
The recommendation to Her Majesty should be drafted bearing in mind not only the necessary qualifications but also the fact that The Queen is in no position to judge the individual merits of institutions outside the United Kingdom.
(b) The essential qualifications are that the
institution should be of eminence, long standing and of secure financial position and devoted to National, Charitable or Scientific objects. Many organisations throughout the British Commonwealth can now justly put forward such claims and in future they should not be regarded as being in themselves sufficient to justify a recommendation. It is contemplated that Commonwealth countries should themselves agree that once the title "Royal" has been granted to one particular type of instit- ution it should not normally be recommended for another of the same sort.
It is not, however, intended that if, for example, a Commonwealth Hospital became "Royal" all other Hospitals in the country concerned should be debarred, but that there should not be two similar Royal Commonwealth Hospitals or two of the same type in any one Region.
(c)
In the past a great number of sporting and athletic institutions of various sorts have been given the title "Royal". is now contemplated that applications by such clubs should be considered in
It
/exceptional
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