AECS
Ref. R 6
The Rt. Hon. Douglas Hurd, C.B.E., M.P., Secretary of State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs,
c/o Government House,
HONG KONG.
Mr Stone
reply
- pl draft a
a
No231,
15th January 1990
Sir,
On behalf of the Association of Expatriate Civil Servants of Hong Kong I welcome you on your first visit to the Territory as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. We appreciate that, on a brief visit, a meeting with representatives of our Association would not be possible so our main concerns are set out in this letter.
We wish to draw your attention to a previous request from Expatriate Pensionable Hong Kong Civil Servants who are members of this Association, most of whom are members of H.M. Overseas Civil Service. Their request is in essence a very simple one, namely that their pensions and the value of their pensions, earned while serving the Crown, will be protected by some form of guarantee post 1 July 1997, when China assumes sovereignty over Hong Kong.
In 1997 the Special Administrative Region, which in theory under Article IV of Annex I of the Joint Declaration 1984 will pay these pensions "on terms no less favourable than before", is to be set up in accordance with Section 31 of the Chinese Constitution.
Recent events in China coupled with a return to a more traditional communist regime have served to make past and present officers more apprehensive than ever over their pensions as they are to be payable by the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. They were extremely anxious even before June 1989 as it is difficult to envisage China paying pensions to officers of a colonial power for a protracted period.
The officers concerned have given loyal service to the Crown and Hong Kong and have made a major contribution to the prosperity and stability of the Territory. Many are keen to remain here and continue to contribute, but against a background of political uncertainty economie stagnation or decline, these officers fear that any future pensions will :-
(a)
be paid in a currency of decreasing value
(b) possibly taxed at exorbitant rates;
(c)
be subject to the whims of an authoritarian sovereign power;
or any combination of the above.
ASSOCIATION OF EXPATRIATE CIVIL SERVANTS OF HONG KONG
ROOM G12 CENTRAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES, EAST WING, LOWER ALBERT ROAD, HONG KONG TEL: 5-220568