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retired under the Special Branch element.
All these officers
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 this power should be
delegated to the Chief Secretary and to the Secretary for the
Civil Service. 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.
now.
It is unfortunate that this problem has only come to light
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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