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Mr. O'Brien
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Pensions Policy Former HMOCS Officers
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In your minute of 19, December, whilst you did not invite written comments, you indicated that if such comments appeared useful it might be well to provide them. I have one fundamental comment so far as dependent territories are concerned.
2.
Paragraph 42 of the ODM paper (which is, however, far from clear as I hope to make plain in a moment) appears to propose to deal with dependent territories by excluding them from any take-over by HMG of responsibility for expatriate pensions. Mr. Combs has in paragraph 3 of his minute of 12 December indicated his very great reluctance to see dependent territories as a class excluded from the scheme; and in the light of paragraph 2 of Sir Leslie Monson's minute of 15 December to Mr. Combs, I do not see how we could possibly accept such a solution. It seems to me, therefore, as I have urged all along, that we should oppose the ODM suggestion in paragraph 42 of their paper.
3. As to the lack of clarity of the ODM suggestion, my comments are as follows. If paragraph 42 is read with paragraph 29 of the ODM paper, then it appears to. imply at least three separate categories of dependent territories as follows:-
(i) Those with executive Public Service Commissions.
These territories would be in the position of having achieved sufficient constitutional advancement to enable the criterion which (in the case of independent countries) is proposed for determining the terminal date for HMG's proposed responsibility for pensions to be applied. It is not clear whether the intention is that, in the case of dependent territories in this category, HMG should offer to take over responsibility for expatriate pensions, cat I presume not (subject to (iii) below); this is to say the least illogical.
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(ii) Those in which the Public Service Commission has not yet become executive and which, considered "on merit and according to need" could not demonstrate a necessity that HMG should take over responsibility for expatriate pensions these territories too would presumably be excluded.
(iii) Those dependent territories which, considered
"on merit and according to need" could argue the necessity for HMG to take on responsibility for expatriate pensions in these territories presumably it is envisaged that taking over responsibility would be considered.
4.
To say the least, the above picture is an extremely untidy one. And given the line we intend to adopt in relation to independent countries, it
CONFIDENTIAL
/seems
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