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have been provided with generous settlements and the retirements
were agreed by mutual consent.
5. However, one of these officers has recently challenged the decision to retire him early in the interests of localisation. This has brought to light the fact that the provisions of the Scheme itself do not confer authority upon the Governor to retire officers. While Colonial Regulation 55 provides the authority for the Crown, through the Secretary of State, to dismiss a servant at will, the power of the Governor or his delegates to do so is not provided for in the Colonial Regulations, except on disciplinary grounds.
6.
Legal Advisers consider that the Secretary of State should authorise an addition to the Colonial Regulations to give the Governor the necessary power to retire officers for the reasons given above. Hong Kong have asked that the Governor should be also be given the general authority to delegate this power to retire officers as appropriate. Legal advice again is that the Governor may only delegate this power with the approval of the Secretary of State. This is uncontroversial and I recommend that the Secretary of State should accept Hong Kong's suggestion.
7. It is unfortunate that this problem has only come to light now. However, since all the other officers who retired early under the Scheme were happy to do so, we do not anticipate any further challenges of this nature. It has now been agreed by mutual consent that the officer in question will retire early,
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