CODE 18-77
CONFIDENTIAL
Reference...
Ms Foul
Foulds
Nationality ofLocal Officers
1. I have examined files on the Bahamas as an example of Caribbean experience. The Bahamas became independent in 1973. There were only two HMOC serving officers at that time. The bill for existing pensioners and their families amounted to some £18,000 but HMG did not consider the Bahamas poor enough to offer to take this on.
2. Up to Independence, citizens of the Bahamas were citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies. The files do not indicate what passports local officers held. But the Bahamas had a rule that expatriates should only work there for five years.
3. The Bahamas government took over the Lighthouse Service. ODA agreed to pay existing Bahamas pensions of the former Imperial Lighthouse Service and to pay a capital sum to the Bahamas for pensions earned by the serving members up to Independence.
4. I would not expect the number of expats in West Indian Civil Services to differ greatly from the Bahamas. The largest islands provided the senior Civil Servants for the West Indian Federation (1959-61) after which Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados proceeded quickly to independence, signing POAS with the British Government to guarantee pension rights to HOMCS.
5 Rocyn-Jones
S Rocyn-Jones
Research & Analysis Department
10 May 1990
GENAAU