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GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
41. Before attempting the difficult task of suggesting a definition of an expatriate officer we feel it necessary to make a few general observations:-
(i) In our view, no officer, of whatever nationality or race, who is locally recruited, should normally be entitled to expatriation pay. We can, however, imagine a case in which a person possesses special qualifications not otherwise available in the Colony, whose services it is essential for Government to secure and who, but for the fact that he happens to be available in Hong Kong by reason of some work in which he has been engaged or for some other reason, would have been qualified as an expatriate officer. In such an exceptional case we consider that Government should be at liberty to engage such a person on terms which would involve expatria- tion pay if his services cannot otherwise be secured;
(ii) we consider that, in order to avoid a sense of resentment at any apparent discrimination in the Government service, it is of vital importance that the principle of expatriation pay should be applied strictly and fairly to the whole service. Accordingly, where officers under their terms of service are entitled to privileges appropriate to an expatriate officer, such as home leave, but on the principle stated are not qualified as expatriate officers, we consider that they should be given the option of either continuing to serve under their existing terms of service, or of accepting the terms of service recommended in this Report;
(iii) as the whole implication of the principle of expatriation pay is the lack of a suitable local candidate we imagine that the necessity of special recruitment from India must gradually disappear. In the same way the necessity of resorting to special recruitment of officers from China can arise only rarely in practice. Here again we can imagine a case where it is essential to get a "specialist" from, say, North China, in which case, of course, the payment of expatriation pay would be reasonable;
(iv) we therefore recommend expatriation pay in accordance with the principles above stated for certain officers already recruited from India and North China, i.e. Indian officers of the Hong Kong Police Force and Prisons Department and Chinese members of the Hong Kong Police Force forming the Shantung Police Contingent; (v) it is obvious that there are many places which, having regard to their relation with Hong Kong, should be excluded from the cate- gory of places in which recruitment would involve expatriation pay. As, however, it would be very difficult to suggest a precise geographical definition which would not be merely arbitrary we feel that it must be left to the discretion of Government to decide what places within China and South East Asia should be included, or excluded, as places in which recruitment would entitle the appointee to expatriation pay.
DEFINITION
42. Coming now to the question of definition, we suggest that this should be done in the form of a series of rules or regulations on the following lines:-
(i) "Overseas country" means a country other than Hong Kong, China, Macao, Japan, India, Burma, Ceylon, the Philippines, the Nether- lands East Indies, Siam, Malaya, French Indo-China, Borneo or Sarawak, or any adjacent territories in South East Asia, from which a person is engaged for service with the Hong Kong Government, provided that for special reasons and in respect of any special case the Governor-in-Council may direct that India and such part or parts of China as the Governor-in-Council shall think fit shall be deemed to be within the definition of an overseas country.
(ii) Expatriate Officer" means a person who, owing to the lack in the Colony of a candidate possessing the requisite qualifications, has been appointed from an overseas country to the service of the Hong Kong Government, and
(a) who on the first occasion of his engagement as aforesaid, was habitually resident in or had his sole or principal place of residence in and was not resident for temporary purposes only in an overseas country; and