Mr Williamson
SECRET
ник oucli
040
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY HO, 51 12 FEB1981
DESK OFFICER
PAPER ON THE FUTURE-HONG KONG
REGISTRY
Action Taken
HKK 040/1
22
pa
For further papers on this Please see HKA 233/373/1 (GEN SECTION)
1981
AW R12
1. You asked me to look into provisions for local administrators in Aden on its independence as the People's Republic of Southern Yemen (PRSY) now the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.
2. The independence agreement, signed by Lord Shackleton in Geneva on 29 November 1967, left matters of civil service pensions and nationality for solution later..
3.
The normal course on independence has been to sign a Public Offficers Agreement by which the new government takes over responsibility for civil service pensions. The PRSY declined to do this. Ex-gratia payments were therefore made to expatrááte administrators. (They are called 'loan advances', as in theory they would have to be repaid if the Yemenis changed their minds) But nothing was done for local administrators until 1970 when the ODA succumbed to pressure from Parliamentary sympathisers and entered into an arrangement with the Yemenis to pay pensions to local civil administrators (including the police). This was extended to the military, in 1973. In 90% of cases a lump sum settlement was agreed on.
-A
4. Some 450 local administrators fled from Aden on independence and owing to the PRSY's truculence over supplying their service records, no payments can be made to them.
The
5. The Yemenis were equally disobliging over nationality. constitution handed to the PRSY, on independence contained provision for a nationality. law, but the Yemenis threw it out. A completely different nationality law was promulgated in August 1968, by which PRSY nationality was confined to those of Arab descent. A large number of non-expatriate administracørs were of Asian extraction and therefore remained CUKCB, unless they were born before 1949, in which case they remained British. Most of these however emigrated to the sub-continent.
5 February 1981
A W Friar,
Hong Kong & General Department
SECRET