7-MAY-1992 18:30
F.C.O.HONG KONG DEPT
071 270 3387
P.03
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SWIA 2AH
21 August 1989
From The Minister of State
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The Hon Fancis Maude MP
Matthew Taylor Esq MP House of Commons
London
SWLA OAA
Dea Nattlier,
Thank you for your letter of 26 July to John Major, on behalf of a member of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, about the possibility of voluntary retirement with
·pension before 1997.
I appreciate his concerns. But it remains true that Section IV of Annex I of the Joint Declaration ensures that all publio servants may remain in employment and continue their cervico after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on 1 July 1997. The Joint Declaration also stipulates that employment (and pensions) will be on terms no less favourable than before. It will be a matter of personal choice whether an individual chooses to leave or to stay on.
I do not in any case agree that after 1997 he would be working for the Chinese authorities: the Joint Declaration provides för a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong after 1997 and for Hong Kong to be run by Hong Yong people.
We do not therefore envisage a general scheme to enable expatriate police officers to retire with pensions on or before 1997. On the contrary, our efforts will be devoted to encouraging pensionable expatriate officers to stay on after the trancfar of sovereignty, in the interests of continuity.
He clai: hat local officers are being given preference over exiites for promotion. It has for some years I been the icy of the Hong Kong Government to increase
the num of local officers in the gazetted officer ranks. But the proportion of local officere im senior ranks is growing as the force expands and as expatriates retire and are succeeded by local officers. Promotion for all is on merit but arrangements have been made to compensate any expatriate officer whose promotion might be blocked by the policy of localisation. It has so far. never been necessary to activate these arrangements.
Francis Mauda
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