6. In the past whenever an overseas territory has started to undertake its own recruitment in the UK, admission to HMOCS has ceased. There have been examples of this in recent years in the case of Northern Rhodesia and Bermuda. The circumstances of Hong Kong are, however, unique, and in many ways they also differ from those of other dependent territories, for none of which we now recruit expatriate officers on pensionable terms.
But in
7.
It is not going to be practicable for us to amend either the UK Pensions (Increase) Act 1971 or the CS Special Regulations. when we talked this over with Teddy kidd we considered the feasibility of inserting a representative of the Secretary of State (eg one of the ODM's professional advisers) on your Selection Boards on the analogy of the procedure for police recruitment. practice ODM advisers rarely sit on selection baards at present, and we doubt the justification for having a permanent representative of the Secretary of State on selection boards when most if not all of the initial recruitment is going to be on contract terms, and where only a limited number of successful candidates are in any case likely later to transfer to pensionable terms.
8. With no disrespect whatever to Teddy kidd or his office, I do not think that a solution lies in his nomination as the Secretary of State's representative in the recruit- ment process either. He is himself, of course, an H10CS officer, but a future successor might well not be; it might well be embarrassing if for any reason we felt it right at some time in the future to change an arrangement on these lines once we had entered into it. It is in any case I think open to objection in principle, in that the Secretary
I of State's responsibilities for an HC officer should, belicve, be separated from those of the government of the territory in which he is to serve. In certain circumstances the two might be in conflict.
9.
a.
b.
I therefore suggest that, on the assumption
that you will normally recruit professional and technical expatriate officers on contract terms,
that the number of such officers whom you will subsequently wish to convert to pensionable terms after a period of satisfactory contract service will be small,-
and
the simplest procedure might be for you to submit individual recommendations for transfer to permanent terms and for
-3-
x.