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LOCAL FORCES AND CIVIL DEFENCE SERVICES

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officers and members are paid at the daily rate at which they would be paid on mobilization.

The Royal Hong Kong Defence Force. The main units of the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force are the Hong Kong Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, which mans and operates two motor mine- sweepers; the Hong Kong Regiment, with the strength and equip- ment of an infantry battalion at lower establishment; Force Head- quarters Units, comprising a Light Troop (4.2 inch Mortars) and other specialized formations; the Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force equipped with Auster aircraft and two Widgeon helicopters; the Home Guard; the Hong Kong Women's Naval Volunteer Reserve; the Hong Kong Women's Auxiliary Army Corps; and the Hong Kong Women's Auxiliary Air Force. The officers of the Force are found amongst its members, but there is in addition a small permanent staff of regular officers and non-commissioned officers attached for training purposes.

Volunteer Service in Hong Kong began with the formation on 30th May 1854 of the Hong Kong Volunteers. In 1878 they were renamed the Hong Kong Volunteer Corps and in 1917 the Hong Kong Defence Corps. In 1920 the title was again changed to the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps.

The Corps was mobilized, about 1,400 strong, to meet the Japanese attack on the Colony on 8th December 1941 and fought with the Regular Forces against overwhelming odds until ordered to surrender on 25th December 1941. In 1956 their action was vividly recalled when part of the old Colours of the Corps, which had been buried in December 1941 to avoid capture by the Japanese, was discovered by workmen excavating a building site on Garden Road. The officers who had buried the Colours had subsequently died in captivity, leaving no record of where the Colours could be found. The remnants of the old Colours were paraded on the Annual Review of the Defence Force in March 1958 and were afterwards laid up in St. John's Cathedral.

For their gallantry in battle and subsequent escapes from Japanese prison-camps in Hong Kong, decorations were conferred upon fifteen members of the Corps; eighteen members were men- tioned in despatches.

After the war the Corps was reconstituted on 1st March 1949 as the Hong Kong Defence Force. Two years later, the title 'Royal'

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