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unpalatable.
There would be no way to proceed without their agreement, because the greater part of the funds
would not be paid until after 1997 and would therefore
have to come from the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region.
7. The Hong Kong Government are already making a
substantial contribution to the total cost of
compensation arising from the change of sovereignty in
1997. Two schemes to meet very particular requirements have been set up. A limited compensation scheme will
facilitate the localisation before 1997 of senior civil service posts. The money will go to expatriates who have been required to retire early to make way for local
officers. In addition, a covert extension of the scheme will cater for Special Branch officers (expatriate and
local) required to retire in advance of 1997 because of
the very sensitive nature of their work. The cost to the
Hong Kong Government of these two schemes (which are of
course essentially different from the General Compensation Scheme in that they benefit local as well s expatriate officers) is likely to be almost £40 million, substantially more than the estimated cost to us of our proposed General Compensation Scheme. I believe it is · right for HMG to play their part by funding what will be an exclusively expatriate scheme.
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