as a reason for providing only one fifth of a sum calculated
r the purposes of compensation and tying
tying the rest to payments made only to those who take up the offer of further employment. I do not think it would be difficult for the members of HMOCS in Hong Kong to convince people that the prospects of continuing to serve are no different in quality from those available to a number, though not all, officers in other territories where full compensation was payable in instalments whether or not they continued in service, that the withholding of the later instalments is coercive rather than an inducement and that it is a perversion of the concept of inducement for continued service in the 1961 White Paper to apply it to the retention of four fifths of a sum which (if the tables were actuarially justifiable) should be used, as they were used in other territories, to calculate compensation for loss of the prospects of continuing in a career such as they had entered upon. The United Kingdom has
has certain obligations under article 4 of the Joint Declaration up to 30th June 1997, but it has no obligations in respect of good government in the SAR or to encourage members of HMOCS to serve
serve the SAR.
Even if it had such an obligiation, how could we even appear to be using the inducement concept to give effect to it by diminishing the sum elsewhere payable as compensation.
14.
The assertion that an officer with ten years service is irrelevant to the question of compensation and of questionable relevance to the issue whether an officer should be entitled to retire with immediate payment of earned pension. In preparation for the visit of the FCO/ODA team to Hong Kong we examined suggestions that using the tables in the proposals would provide compensation advantages for Hong Kong civil servants which were substantially greater than those obtained by members of MOCS in other territories and than retirement benefit advantages which could be obtained by UK civil servants who are retired e.g. for re-organisation reasons.
Using 1992 figures, neither of these suggestions proved sustainable in any marked degree. The most that could be said is that Hong Kong salaries are higher and this would provide for higher retiring benefits in the normal course of events.
And as for arguments for a change of policy, is it not the case that the only one that does retain some cogency is that, if the UK has to meet the bill, it intends to limit the cost to the taxpayer even if this means disappointing the reasonable expectations of this last collectin of members of HMOCS ?
15. How may the members of HMOCS seek to forward their case for
a traditional compensation and retiring benefits scheme? Sympathetic members of Parliament is one obvious way and, apart from such occassion as would be offered for Parliamentary criticism by the presentation of our current proposals for a scheme and the publication of such a scheme as a firm commitment, we will probably have to seek statutory power to make an order in council to implement it. In addition to seeking assistence from members of Parliament, it is possible that the members of HMOCS would seek judicial review at the stage when a scheme is first poublished administratively or is made pursuant to statute. In the present state of the law regarding judicial review it
f.