TNAG-0205-FCO40-241-Pensions-policy-1970 — Page 13

HF 19/22

CONFIDENTIAL,

..

20 November 1969

25

RECEIVED IN

GISTRY No.47 21 NOV 1969

1F19/22

Overseas Pensions

Wo ore very grateful to Birroll for sending Baillie under cover of his letter SA 222/05 of 3 November three napors rolating to the ponsions issuo I understand that the draft D.V.C. paper is still under considoration in ODI and that you would appreciato early FCO comments. Those are as follows

Field of proposed HKG responsibility

2. The conclusion (paragraph 31 of the paper) is brondly acceptable to us. Wo would like to be assured, however, that in the absence of a POA agreement, the Minister would consider that "bolongora" who are bona fide oxpatriates would qualify for inclusion, (The Caribbean and the Pacific are, of course, the two main areas where this could be a source of contention.) Other comments concora ;

(a) Post-independence Service

A main objective in undertaking this exercise is to remove a source of irritation in our relations with recently independent Commonwealth countries and it seems to us that thore is a very strong case for doing a thorough job and clearing up all pockets of potential friction at ono fell swoop. Having takon ovor financial rosponsibility for the pro-independence portion of pensions, it is very probable that ovoraoas governments in yours to come will question who thor thoy are under any obligation to meet the post-independence portion of expatriates' pensions in cases where the officer was recruited ond appointed prior to independence and included in the POA. Although our position on this would be logical and defensible, logic will not necessarily prevail and our relations with particular countries (not to mention the suffering of individual officers) could bo soriously affected. The extra cost involved would not be large and would be a small price to pay for removing this potential source of friction. It is possible that some sort of commutation payment by the overseas government might be an appropriate way of solving this iosuo. It would have the merit of preserving the principle that oversoas govornments aro responsible for post-independenco servico. No doubt many countries will seek a loan from us to meet this commutation payment, but this ought to present no particular problems since such countries are in any caso likely to be in receipt of aid from us.

H.A. Cahill Eoq.,

P.a.

Ministry of Overseas Development.

ATB21/11

CONFITENTIAL

/ (b) Quasi-