1 May 1992
Mrs S D Brown
HM Treasury
Parliament Street LONDON
SW1
CONFIDENTIAL
233/1
HKA 233/1
Dew Sandra.
HONG KONG HMOCS: COMPENSATION
248
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
File (291)
Complete Copy
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-
1. Since I wrote to you on 15 Apr we have received the enclosed comments on our opening statement from the Committee of the HMOCS Association in Hong Kong. We have also received more than 200 letters from individual officers.
2.
The general tone of comment has been even more negative than we expected. Few of the letters are identical, but almost all argue that:
a) as clearly set down in the 1960 White Paper, officers should be entitled to retire early, at or after the change of sovereignty, with immediate payment of pension; and
b) it is essential that HMG should provide sterling safeguards for the value of HMOCs pensions.
c) the actuarial figures to be used, ie those in the Hong Kong Limited Compensation Scheme for superseded officers, are far too low: officers should receive full traditional compensation;
d) it is unreasonable that officers should have to stay for a number of years in the service of the SAR Government in order to receive the full benefits: any post-1997 incentive payments should be additional to the compensation payments;
e) it is unacceptable that benefits should be linked to January 1992 salaries (and movements in the UK RPI) and the 1991 exchange rate.
There are many other more detailed criticisms and questions.
ASHAJC
CONFIDENTIAL