From The Minister of State
The Rt Hon The Lord Goronwy-Roberts
from Eldon,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
14 December 1978
HKK 382/2
RECEIVED IN RAQUELA VI
18 DEC1973
INDEX
No lon
51
en
David Owen has asked me to reply to your letter of
6 December with which you enclosed a letter from four former officers of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force.
These officers were among a group of 119 officers who, earlier this year, were compulsorily retired under Colonial Regulation 55, which provides that "an officer holds office subject to the pleasure of the Crown, and the pleasure of the Crown that he may no longer hold it may be signified through the Secretary of State in which case no special formalities are required."
157
Colonial regulations in general form part of the conditions of service of public servants in Dependent Territories. Colonial Regulation 55 has been sparingly used in the past, but it is available in appropriate cases. In this particular instance the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary decided that it would be right to use Colonial Regulation 55 in order to terminate without delay the services of a number of officers whose continued membership of the Royal Hong Kong Folice Force would not have been in the public interest.
I can assure you that great care was taken to ensure that no officer was retired without reasonable cause. Each recommendation from the Hong Kong Government for compulsory retirement was separately scrutinised by two Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials acting independently and by an FCO Legal Adviser. Where the recommendation was confirmed the final decision was then taken by the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary.
By saying that they were "thrown out of their jobs and quarters" your correspondents suggest that the manner in which the decision to terminate their services was implemented was unnecessarily harsh. In fact they have been treated in exactly the same way as any other officers retiring from the public
Mr Eldon Griffiths MP
House of Commons
London SW1
/service