NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
W(B)L 51-7406
They world lead to public ventilation of the nation of H.MG's
weapon.
It could hardly be kept a secret.
This very simplified statement of the
background leads to a number of awkward con-
clusions about the significance for Hong Kong
of these pension proposals:
(a) (An obligation on HIMG to assume financial
towards H.K. fent, mert
ل مهرة
esponsibility for Hong Kong pensione when
the territory ceases to be dependent on us
in respect of pensioners' public services
when the Colony was dependent will in any
case fall on HMG (although the circume
stances might well be such that we could
not discharge that responsibility, at least
to indigenous staff who remained in the
The case for accepting sued
territory)
This obligationscan only be
reinforced by the new policy proposals.
(b) Nevertheless we must refrain from any
acknwledgment" _amy
public acceptance of such an obligations.
However gratifying it would be to Hong
Kong staff it could only give rise to
damaging speculation in the territory
and would give too many hostages to
fortune.
disavow
(c) Equally we must not publicly repudiate
any such obligations,for obvious reasons.
(a) We may well find it impossible, however
prudent it would be, to make external
financial provision. For political reasons,
an actharg Without knowing what sum actually would be
required to set aside to meet an annual
pensions bill of more than £31 million it
would nevertheless be interesting to cal-
culate what effect it would have on the
substantial Hong Kong reserves to fund the
necessary sum.
/ It