CONFIDENTIAL COVERING SECRET
HMOCS/Civil Service Issues
5.
The Minister last saw the HMOCS Association Committee
on 31 May and gave Mr Cartland a letter which set out the
progress made (agreement in principle to a sterling pension safeguard and to a revised compensation scheme, and the
Governor's decision that officers may retire early with full
pension). Subsequently Mr Cartland (but not others in the
Committee) was briefed in confidence by Mr Dinham about our
difficulties with the Treasury. His letter of 21 September
pressed for more details, but also sought to link HMOCS
members' concern over their package with the current debate
in Hong Kong on the change to the localisation policy. This is a spurious argument: there is a Local Compensation Scheme
for those affected by localisation and that is HKG's concern. Mr Goodlad's reply contained a straight-bat response noting
that the HKG would soon inform those HMOCS officers who would
be affected. But these arguments will no doubt resurface in
the Meeting with HMOCS Association (Brief No 7).
6. In a separate development, the South China Morning Post
of 27 September set out in detail our proposals for the
compensation scheme. We do not know the source of the leak, and HKG are neither confirming nor denying the accuracy of the report. The effect may not be altogether unhelpful, as
it will tend to confirm that something has been achieved in
all the long months of inter-departmental haggling here.
7.
HKG's interim decision to amend their localisation
policy, to allow certain oficers on overseas terms to
transfer to local terms, continues to provoke controversy.
One or two outside government (notably Christine Loh and
journalist Margaret Ng) have argued that civil servants
should be promoted on merit not on racial grounds, but it has
touched raw nerves with the Senior Non-Expatriate Officers
Association (SNEOA), and has provided a handy basis for
Chinese criticisms of the Bill of Rights and accusations of
British conspiracy to retain influence after 1997.
The
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