Policing Decolonisation - Open Exam Revision "Colonial Policing and the Demise of British Rule in Hong Kong" by Mark S. Gaylord and Harold Traver, 23-43: . Notes Hong Kong as a "mixed and unique case in British colonial history" with relation to its handover to China. (23) · Managing a neat retreat from Empire has been an important part of Britain's post-war foreign policy and colonial police have played an integral role in it. (23) Despite this, relatively little attention has been paid to it. · "decolonisation should be considered a process that both precedes and follows a change of sovereignty rather than as a discrete, historic event" and, in Hong Kong's case, the Royal Hong Kong police played an important role in it. (24) · Hong Kong's first Chief Magistrate was Captain William Caine appointed on 30th April 1841 tasked with "law and order" being a broad remit including police, courts and prisons. (24-5) . Those which composed of the forced at the start were Europeans and then Indians/Chinese with the former being armed with a short musket and light cutlass and the latter a cutlass, staff and rattle. (25) . Notes terrible conditions in the force originally - pay was unattractive and any sober men who joined often quickly left. (25) In 1854 average length of service of a European constable was only 3 months. . Importance of Walter Meredith Deane taking over the top post of the Hong Kong force - he dismissed almost all inspectors and most constables, replacing them with Sikhs recruited from the Indian Sind province. The Sind police themselves had been organised on the RIC model after the 1840s. (2tt) . This new force was much more effective and more militarised, being deployed as in military units, and they were housed in fortified barracks. (2tt) . It was in recruitment policy that Hong Kong differed dramatically. It was standard colonial policy practice that the rank-and-file of the force should be recruited mostly from the people of the colony. However, Hong Kong policy 1841-1945 dictated that people from overseas should be recruited and that they should form a majority - this is indicative of the belief ethnic Chinese people couldn't be trusted. (2tt) · Ultimately, this largely foreign force was more expensive to recruit/maintain, and was less effective at dealing with the locals, but "in the judgement of colonial officials, it could be trusted to uphold British rule and to protect European lives and property" (2tt) . Essentially, authorities in Hong Kong accepted they couldn't gain policing legitimacy and consent so required a high level of coercion instead. (2tt) . "throughout much of its history, Hong Kong's legal system has been used to control the Chinese population" with repressive laws being aimed specifically at the Chinese population. (2fi) · In the 19ttOs the police saw themselves as, quite rightly, having an image problem and attempted to resolve it. (28-9) An emphasis was on the conduct of the individual policeman. (29) . In Hong Kong