CODE 18-77
Mr Ricketts
CONFIDENTIAL
HKA 233/1
Reference
487
FICE
ELIGIBILITY OF NON-HMOCS OFFICERS FOR STERLING SAFEGUARDS
1.
I discussed Mr Fifoot's point with Civil Service Branch when I was in Hong Kong in June and asked them to provide the list of non-HMOCS overseas pensionable officers. I think that the list of 57 consists mainly of officers who have already retired, such as the RHKP Pakistanis, who have returned home. (It would be helpful if Mr Stone could check that this is so, ie that this is not just a list of such officers still in service.)
2. Mr Stone seems to me to put the matter the wrong way round in asking whether we are "in a position not to allow the 57 officers to have their pensions protected" and "whether we have the stomach for the fight". We should not argue for the UK taxpayer to take on a further contingent liability, even if the proportionate impact is not great, unless it is essential to do so. Moreover in this case there is a serious risk that if we open the doors to non-HMOCS officers it will become impossible to resist pressure to admit many local officers. Many local officers have closer connections with the UK than many of these overseas officers: as Mr Stone points out, they enjoy leave passages to this country and many have homes here. They also receive education allowances to send their children to school here.
As
There is no countervailing argument in terms of the governance of Hong Kong for offering sterling safeguards to these officers (particularly if most have already retired). for the question of reasonable expectations and the possibility of judicial review, all our statements have referred to HMOCS; if any non-HMOCS officers had expected arrangements to cover them too I think that we would have heard from them by now.
4.
If, as I propose, we confine our scheme to HMOCS officers, and if ultimately the Hong Kong dollar collapses or if the SARG defaults, then we can expect these officers to press HMG to intervene; it may be that the Government of the day would then judge it right to help them and perhaps other non-HMOCS officers. We should no doubt warn the Treasury at some point of this contingency, but we need not over-dramatise it.
Meanwhile if asked about our policy I think we should note that in the 1954 White Paper HMG said that they:
5.
"recognise that there are certain other categories of overseas pensionable officers who have been appointed to the service of territorial governments otherwise than by selection by the Secretary of State. These officers may be assured that their interests will not be
CONFIDENTIAL