RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g HISTORY OF MILITARY VOLUNTEERS IN H.K. 159 pay certain sums into the Corps Funds. These variations to the old Ordinance are important as no fixed period under penalty had been enjoined in it, and no special duties other than active military service had been envisaged for the force. The reasons for these changes must again be sought in the changing nature of the times. The educated youth and the industrial labour of China had entered into a period of unrest and discontent brought about by their country's weakness. China had entered the war as an ally of the Western powers in 1917 but despite this they refused to give up tariff privileges and treaty ports (the European concessions) or to make their other Eastern ally, Japan, relinquish her territorial encroachments on China. The 1920s were a time of growing internal strife in China coupled with increased resentment of the West. Hong Kong was not excluded from the impact of ideological struggle. The Seaman's Strike of 1922 and the General Strike of 1925-26 crippled the port and damaged the economy of the Colony. An emergency situation existed, and thus a fresh impetus was given to the Volunteer Corps whose services were again needed for humdrum but essential work. Colonel H. Owen Hughes recalls being called out for six weeks in 1925, and combining office work by day with duty by night patrolling the streets and guarding hospitals and vulnerable points.20 Whoever decided that a new Ordinance was needed in 1920 was a man of prescience and discernment. Other amendments were made to the Volunteer Ordinance in 1926 and 1927 (No. 15 of 1926 and No. 27 of 1927) in the light of contemporary requirements. By the late thirties hostilities were again threatening in Western Europe and Japan's gradual encroachments in China led to actual war in 1937 and the occupation of Canton the following year. The danger which these events might bring to Hong Kong had already been anticipated. The Corps grew in size during this period and the Year Books between 1934 and 1940 make interesting reading. In the first issues we see that, following the Ordinance of 1933, the Volunteer Defence Corps consisted of one battery of artillery, a machine gun battalion that included three machine gun companies, corps infantry (largely Portuguese) and corps engineers and signals and armoured cars with a reserve company. 20 Vol, 1964, p. 42. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 162 JAMES HAYES mentions in despatches.32 On 1st May 1951, H.M. The King was pleased to approve the change of title of the Hong Kong Defence Force to be, in future, the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force and, in 1957, it was accorded the right to carry the battle-honour 'Hong Kong' like those Regular Infantry units that had taken part in the defence of the Colony. The Honour is worn on the Queen's Colour at present carried by The Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers).34 (c) The Post-War Period. The Volunteer Ordinance was re-enacted in 1948, and again in 1951; only this time, for the first time in the history of volunteer soldiering in the Colony, the Corps, now under the new Ordinance styled the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force, had to absorb and train conscripts recruited under the Compulsory Service Ordinance of 1951, as well as volunteer members. The new post-war Volunteer Ordinance of 1948 made a departure in that it created an infantry battalion to be known as "The Hong Kong Regiment", in addition to Force Head Quarters units. Whilst there had been a Machine Gun Battalion before the war it was more a collection of companies than a battalion organisation. As Colonel H. Owen Hughes who was the first C.O. of the new unit remarks, "The essential difference from the former H.K.V.D.C. was our establishment as an Infantry Battalion as opposed to the local formations of pre-war day, when the Corps had no proper Establishment but consisted of a number of independent and mostly support units, developed on an ad hoc basis". The 1951 Volunteer records that strength had crept up from 19 officers and 282 other ranks the previous year to 21 officers and 318 men, but was "still woefully short".36 It was at that juncture that the decision was taken by the Hong Kong Government to introduce a Compulsory Service Ordinance, since volunteers alone could not provide the numbers required. 32 Vol, 1954, p. 111. For war service in Hong Kong and elsewhere. 33 Vol, 1954, p. 111. 34 Vol, 1957, pp. 3 and 11-12. And now on the guidon carried by the Royal Hong Kong Regiment following the reorganisation mentioned in note 3 above. 35 Vol, 1964, pp. 42 and 45. 36 Vol, 1951, p. 31. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 166 JAMES HAYES four or five years after the end of the war, after a period of not unexpected lack of interest in any kind of soldiering, it is recorded by Colonel H. Owen Hughes that an evening spent in the Cricket Club brought forward a whole platoon (No. 1 Platoon of No. 1 Company) "many of whom had held a Commission in the War"46 Many of the Volunteers of this time had also served pre-war in Volunteer units elsewhere, and their records of service make interesting reading. As time went on, too, several generations of families, Portuguese, Eurasians, Chinese and also some Europeans with either a home or family continuity in the Colony through business or professional interests, provided several generations of volunteers. This is particularly true of the last 40 years, and many of the present generation of volunteers can give the names of fathers, uncles and cousins who have been volunteers, not just during the period of conscription, but stretching back into the inter-war and even to the pre-1914 period. An interesting study could be made of the social composition of the officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the Hong Kong Volunteers, at different periods in their history, to relate recruitment to the various racial groups and classes of persons available and to establish, what, if any, barriers were raised to the entry of any of these at any time. DRESS AND EQUIPMENT (a) Dress. Few photographs have survived from the earlier days of volunteering in Hong Kong. Of two that are mentioned in our records, one is of Volunteers in the 1860s and was shown at the centenary exhibition in 1954.47 Another dates from the 1880s and was sent by H. H. Read, mentioned above, with his letter to the Commandant for the Year Book for 1937. Some light on dress at this period is shed by the Rules and Regulations of 1882 (but not, unfortunately, by those promulgated in 1862). Section 27 of the 1882 Rules and Regulations state that "the uniform of the Corps will consist of a blue cloth Tunic with * Plates 11-20 illustrate this article. They relate to the middle period of Volunteer history, 1895-1932. 46 Vol, 1964, p. 42. 47 Vol, 1954, p. 239. ================================================================================