For their services during the present campaign the whole Corps was cited by the Colonel Superieur pf the French Troops in China, several members with over ten years' service being decorated with the bronze Concession Medal. The Commanding Officer received the Silver Medal and was made a Corporal d'Honneure of the premier battalion of the Marche de Chine.
It is a remarkable fact that, although the Corps had men out on the roads nightly for four and a half months. no casualties were experienced though. on several occasions, shells and anti-aircraft bullets dropped surprisingly close. The unit assisted in the trender and disarming of the 6,003 Chinese soldiers who came in from Nantao on November 11, 1937.
The Corps has the distinction of being a unit of the French Defence Corps and not of the Municipal Police, being under direct orders from the Consul-General for France, who, with His Excellency the French Ambassador, called on the postes many times during the trouble.
It is interesting to mote that each agent on joining siges an attestation form offering his services to France. In 1927 the unit became a part of the Foreign Legion, when one of their duties was to serve evacuation notices on all residents in the French Con-a period when the present Government took over the affairs of Shanghai.
The present Corps strength is 250 men of 23 different nationalities, including one Chinese who has served since 1925. Their stations in life include—-bankers, merchants, master mariners, tea merchants, shipping agents, sea pilots etc, etc, the majority being veterans of the Great War or other wars and their various decorations include almost everything with the exception of the Victoria Cross and Iron Cross.
The unit is always maintained at full strength, recruiting being done privately. The Corps is unique for its knowledges of languages, a few of the different tongues spoken being: English, Chinese, Japanese, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Welsh, Turkish, Russian, ete.
It is purely a voluntary organization, the idea of the members being to give their services to the Concession without charge. The uniform is blue, the officers wearing their distinctive ranks on the helmet and arms; silver chevrons on the arm denoting years of service.
The present -unit owes much of its efficiency to Commandant Fabre, Chief of the French Police, and M, Jobez, the present acting Commandant, who has devoted much time to the training of the Corps,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.