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inpalatable.
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.
The Hong Kong Government are already making a
Substantial contribution to the total cost of Compensation arising from the change of sovereignty in
.397. Two schemes to meet very particular requirements .
have seen set up. A limited compensation scheme will
facilitate the localisation before 1997 of senior civil
sarvice posts. The money will go to expatriates who have
bean required to retire early to make way for local
officars. In addition, a covert extension of the scheme
will cater for Special Branch officers (expatriate and
local) required to retire in advanca 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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