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Secondly, for retired civil servants, after 1997 what kind of pension would they receive? If the pension is going to be affected in any way, what can the British Government do for them?
Thirdly, what is the British attitude regarding retired civil servants before 1997 and people who retire after 1997? For these two different types of retired civil servants would you have different moral attitudes towards them? So those are the three questions for the Governor please.
Governor: Let me deal with them quite swiftly. First of all I am certainly prepared to consider the sort of questionnaire you mentioned, although I think it is fair to say that our Civil Service Branch will have ensured that line managers keep very closely in touch with opinion in the middle and lower ranks of the civil service to try to ensure that they know about people's commitment in the medium and long term. The fact of the matter is that there is a very low turnover in the civil service at the moment. The drop-out rate, for example, is at a historic low and I think that must be largely because people in the middle and lower ranks are staying, recognising that the civil service is a good and important career.
On the second question, there should be no difference at all. Let me repeat that, no difference at all to your pension or to any retired civil servant's pension after 1997. That commitment has been made clear in all the sacred texts, the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law and so on, and it has been underlined by people like Director Lu in Peking.
Thirdly, because of that I don't think it should make any difference at all whether you retire before '97 or after '97, I think you should be treated exactly the same. One of the important aspects of Hong Kong being promised that its way of life will continue is that the treatment of its public servants should be exactly the same and I think that is a commitment which any government will want to keep. Just in order to try to reassure people about that, we did put a large amount of money, several billion dollars, into a fund which we put on one side which can be used just in case there are any problems with civil servants pensions in the future but I don't expect there to be at all. This is a very rich community and it will be able to afford to pay its civil service pensions forever.
Question: This is, I suppose, a kind of personal question, if you don't mind, but not
1 very personal. I wondered how you cope with the overwhelming sense of failure and frustration you must have in Hong Kong?