functions as the staff transferred to them, and
consequently no problems of assimilation erose.
3. The particular points in the terms offered by the
Hong Kong Government that the Minister of Public Building
and Works regarded as unsatisfactory were:-
(i) point of entry into the Hong Kong salary scales;
(ii) promotion prospects
(iii) position in the event of a redundancy situation.
not
These "disabilities" all in fact derived from the Hong Kong
Government's view that none of the H.P.B.W. staff could be
granted on transfer to the Hong Kong Service a seniority
determined by the length of their their U.K. Government
and
service tax must enter the Hong Kong service as new
tax
entrants (as did the Navy Department personnel made redundant
different Forms case for speed
upon the closure of the Navel Dockyard. The M.P.B."'s Puent verted on the any winend"
in the proper semie of the weased
that their staff could not be regarded as redundant, as the
work had still to be carried out and was being taken over by
Gort
employ
existing the Hong Kong which should therefore by them (in their jobs)
h
in the Hong Kong service.
4.
While regarding it as reasonable that the M.F.B.W. should do what
they could to get the best possible terms for these U.K. Go ver ment
employees, both the C.0. and the Treasury considered that this
was essentially the Hong Kong Government's problem and a matter
on which the decisions of that Government would have to be
accepted Terms, conditions and staff practices in the U.K.
could not be applied to U.K. staff world-wide. They must be
The adapted to correspond to local conditions. Hong Kong Government's
ん
funds and not H.M.G's were involved. The interests of its
civil service were involved; it could not ignore the reactions
of its staff associations which would strongly contest the
7
supercession of serving Hong Kong officers. The M.P.B.. staff wirded
all
cin of
were ocal residents and the Hong Kong Government, balancing their
agat Ihose of Hinwand serving Hong Kong officers!
both, was bound to be es fair as it could
theinterests
towards them. The way in which the Naval Dockyard staff
/were