CONFIDENTIAL
IMMEDIATE
Mr. Fairclough
(W.I.D.)
10
Reference....
MWS Cantar 12 My con for
You,
an
Overseas Pensions Policy
agreed
A
I attach copies of FCO telegram No. 52 to the Governor, Hong Kong, and his reply, Hong Kong telegram No. 78.
In
2. The OPDO Meeting to discuss the main pensions paper will take place on Friday morning. Sir Denis Greenhill will represent the FCO. view of Hong Kong's reactions and the negligible progress we have so far made at official level in persuading the ODM and the Treasury to accept our position on the dependent territories, I intend, subject to your comments, to include the following passage in the brief for the OPDO Meeting:
"Dependent Territories
4/2
In official discussions we have so far taken the view that it would be very difficult to justify proposals which appear to treat dependent territories less favourably than independent countries. Since dependent territories are considered to be the first charge on our aid programme, it would be very desirable, and make good sense, to include all dependent territories in the proposed takeover. As a fallback position we have sought to obtain a limited inclusion of dependent territories on the following lines:
(a) Special arrangements on the lines to be offered to independent countries would be offered to those dependent territories having executive Public Service Commissions as and when they reached that stage of constitutional development.
(b)
For the other dependent territories we would undertake to take account of their expenditure on expatriate pensions in assessing their needs for development aid.
Hong Kong presents a major difficulty. FCO telegram No. 52 to the Governor, Hong Kong, and his reply, Hong Kong telegram No. 78 are attached. The Governor is of the opinion that any change in our present policy would be embarrassing and that Hong Kong should be omitted from any takeover, whatever its scope.
In view of Hong Kong's reaction and the opposition of other Whitehall departments to our proposals, it is recommended that we should now cease to press for the inclusion of dependent territories but insist that a formula on the following lines should be included in any public statement announcing new policies:
Dependent territories will have their pensions liabilities taken into account when assessing their needs for development aid. They are a first charge on our aid programme and we intend to increase our aid to them.
Unless we make some statement on these lines we will be exposed to criticism that we are
CONFIDENTIAL
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