This is a drill: British army returns to Hong Kong
HONG KONG: Nearly 20 years after Hong Kong was returned to China, the British army is back — this time to train the city’s police force on crucial matters of pomp and ceremony.
Four British army personnel drilled Hong Kong police officers on ceremonial standards, the first such arrangement since the former British colony was handed back to Beijing in 1997, reports said.
“The army’s school of ceremony were invited to help smarten up the Hong Kong police force,” British army broadcaster Forces TV said in a December 22 report.
Hong Kong’s police force was established in 1844, just a few years after Hong Kong became a British colony.
The force in the now semiautonomous Chinese city still adheres to British ceremonial traditions — and boasts one of Asia’s best bagpipe bands.
British army officers supervised Hong Kong police officers as they marched in formation with the sound of bagpipes filling the air, video footage on Forces TV showed.
“We were asked what we could do to improve our police officers on professionalism... why don’t we just invite the instructors... to have their skills and their teaching methods delivered in Hong Kong,” police inspector Ka Lok told Forces TV. Hong Kong police were unable to immediately comment on the training arrangement when contacted by AFP yesterday. — AFP