ENG-1980 — Page 254

THE ARMED SERVICES AND AUXILIARY SERVICES

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An important role of the unit is internal security but it serves in a variety of other roles. It works closely with the Royal Hong Kong Police Force and, during the year, provided at least two flights per day on anti-illegal immigrant patrols as well as long-range surveillance flights to spot craft carrying Vietnamese refugees.

The unit also responded to a number of requests from the Marine Department to search for, and provide assistance to, ships in distress in the South China Sea. Among numerous other duties, the Cessna Titan and Britten-Norman Islander continued to assist the Public Works Department in aerial surveys and photography for map-making and development planning, while the Bulldogs maintained regular meteorological evaluation flights.

The auxiliary air force's three helicopters provide a 24-hour medical evacuation service from Hong Kong's remote areas, and are used to convey people on official visits to the territory's more inaccessible parts. During the dry season, the helicopters are frequently employed to assist in combatting fires in the countryside.

In response to an increasing demand for its services during 1980, the auxiliary air force extended its working day from nine to 17 hours, in addition to the overnight emergency stand-by shifts maintained by the volunteers.

With its flexible and economic range of aircraft and staff, the Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force is able to provide both civil and military flying services adaptable to the changing needs of Hong Kong.

Civil Aid Services

The Civil Aid Services is a disciplined volunteer service founded in 1952 and trained to assist the regular emergency services in dealing with natural disasters or other emergencies. It also plays an important role in performing crowd-control duties at public gatherings and assisting in the organisation of local Chinese festivals, charity fund-raising drives, govern- ment publicity campaigns and sports meetings.

Civil Aid Services volunteers are trained to handle casualties, conduct search and rescue operations to recover people trapped after landslides or building collapses, and to control crowds. Other operational duties which are performed regularly include patrolling country parks, fighting forest fires, carrying out mountain rescues, and life-saving.

Throughout 1979 the resources of the Civil Aid Services were heavily involved in the management of camps established for the Vietnamese refugees, and in delivering food to refugees waiting in the quarantine anchorages. However, as the inflow of Vietnamese refugees grew less in 1980, and as the management of certain camps was assumed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the Civil Aid Services was able to reassess its organisation.

The adult members of the Civil Aid Services comprise 3,000 volunteers from all walks of life. On completion of their training most join a unit in the area in which they work or reside. This allows a unit to be mobilised rapidly in an emergency, and the volunteers' knowledge of their own neighbourhoods increases the effectiveness of the unit to which they belong. Units are strategically located in the heavily populated parts of urban Hong Kong, and have now been established under a New Territories Regional Command in all large towns in the New Territories. The most recent additions, the units at Sha Tin and Kwai Chung, were established during 1980.

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The Civil Aid Services has a cadet corps comprising 2,220 boys aged between 14 and 18 years. The aim of the corps is to encourage civic awareness and responsibility among the young people of Hong Kong and to help prepare them for adulthood. These objectives are