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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.885

Reference :-

18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Printed for the use of the Colonial Office.

Miscellaneous

No. 199.

COLONIAL PENSIONS.

(A.)

MEMORANDUM as to Pensions of officers who have served under more than one Government.

1. In 1869, & Circular, dated the 15th of July (of which a copy is annexed*), was sent to the Colonies proposing a system for the calculation of the pensions of officers transferred from one Colony to another or from the Imperial to Colonial Service. Treasury concurrence in the terms of the Circular was expressed in Treasury letters of the 8th of July, 1869, and the 1st of September, 1869. The system proposed was practically that laid down in Section 1 (2) of the Superan- nuation Act, 1892, viz.: that the same superannu- ation allowance should be given as would have been granted if the officer's whole service had been in the public office from which he ulti mately retired (but see qualification in Rule 7 of the Circular).

2. A strong protest against the proposed system was entered by Ceylon, the main points of which were :—

(1) The final Colony would in all cases have to pay more than it would have paid if it had regarded simply the officer's service in that Colony for the calculation of pension.

(2) A Colony with a large service and high salaries, like Ceylon, would prove more attractive to officers of high stand- ing and long service than other Colonics, and would consequently have more trans- ferred officers, drawing high salaries, retiring from its service on pension than other Colonies. The large and rich Colonies would thus be penalised by the system.

(3) The high salaries and pension advantages offered by Ceylon were al- ready sufficient inducement to attract the men required, and it was not fair to those who provided the revenue of Ceylon to add to those inducements unneces sarily.

(4) In the case of an officer trans- ferred from a service which conferred r claim to pension, the service from which that officer finally retired would have t pay pension on the difference between the salaries given in the two Colonies for the period of the officer's service in the former Colony, in spite of the fact thr that service gave no claim to pension.

• Printed in Miscellaneous No. 212.

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