1
FOR
OSS: ENY 9 -
XPR 340/1
Mr Moss
1.
RESTRICTED
FROM D C WALKER DATE: 4 April 1990
CC: Mr Paul, HKD
You mentioned to me this morning that John Holroyd, the First Civil Service Commissioner, had spoken to you about the possibility of Hong Kong providing a pool of recruitment for the Home Civil Service. Mr Holroyd had mentioned to you that the DSS had had this idea separately as well.
2.
I discussed the situation with Mr Paul, to whom I am copying this minute, and subsequently went back to Mr Holroyd.
3.
I told him that there appeared to be three categories involved:
Such people
(i) Expatriates in the private sector. were doing very well financially and were well able to look after themselves. When they left Hong Kong they would be very unlikely to wish to join the Home Civil Service, even as HCS 7 (DS5 equivalent) direct entrants, as the salaries simply would not be equivalent to what they were used to.
(ii) HMOCs. The Hong Kong Civil Service, comprising both expatriates and locals. The aim of British policy was that the Civil Service should continue and that its members should stay on after 1997. We were currently considering ways in which expatriates could be persuaded to stay on after 1997 and the Joint Declaration talked about a motivated Civil Service. Any operation spear-headed by the CSC, or any Department of State who poached expatriates or locals from the Hong Kong Civil Service would accordingly go down extremely badly with the Hong Kong Government and would run counter to British Government policy.
(iii) Hong Kong Chinese in British Universities. Such people could be recruited to the Civil Service (Home Civil Service nationality rules merely require Commonwealth nationality). They could be given work permits which could lead to British citizenship, which might be an attraction. But I noted that any such activity on a large scale would be sensitive politically and secondly that some of those involved might not have sufficient English (English being their second language).
4.
My general message was that there did not seem to be much scope for recruiting in that particular pool.
KK1ABN
RESTRICTED