Mr Morris, HKD
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Minisho
Whose
budget?
[2
28
X
Hong Kong:
Arrangements for Members of Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS)
Thank you for your submission of 25 October with briefing for the Secretary of State's bilateral meeting with the Chief Secretary.
In the event, the Secretary of State and Mr Portillo had a word on the telephone.
The Chief Secretary said that, if it was just a question of him and the Foreign Secretary reaching an accommodation, it was possible to see how that could be done both on the compensation package (where officials had already identified a way of splitting the difference), and on the Sterling safeguard where the difference could also be split. However, any such accommodation ran the risk of meeting opposition either from the Governor, or from the HMOCS members. The problem was how to square the Governor.
The Secretary of State said that he agreed that it was natural to split the difference on the compensation package, and officials had worked out a way of doing that. The Sterling safeguard was a contingent liability, not real money, and was therefore in a different category. This was the most difficult point for the Governor. We and the Governor had already offered a concession by agreeing to the Treasury mechanism for the safeguard.
The Secretary of State said that he thought the best way to deal with this was to bring it to OPD (K) on 10 November, when the Governor would be present. Meanwhile, he was prepared to talk to the Governor, to argue for a compromise. But he encouraged Mr Portillo to offer some movement himself on the safeguard.
CONFIDENTIAL