It is difficult to see how ODM is going to
be able to announce the new policy without
raising the reasonable assumption in still
dependent territories that when their time of
independence comes HMG will pick up their
pensions bill in respect of pre-independence
services by eligible staff. But it seems to me
that the less explicit the announcement were in
this respect the less embarrassment there would
be in respect of Hong Kong. If the announce-
ment were not explicit it would not reinforce
The cash to the same degree our already existing commit-
ment and we could deal with enquiries from Hong
Kong by simply saying that when territories ceased to be dependent we would be looking at
their cases on an individual basis.
per accepting similar obly steams to Hong Kong.
The most awkward form of announcement for
us would be an explicit assumption of future
liability on any sort of blanket basis. Any
such undertaking would necessarily be taken to
apply to Hong Kong and we would be in immediate
difficulty if we were asked to confirm the fact.
If there has to be,for any reason, (and I understand that Fiji might be a case in point)
a forward undertaking in respect of a still
dependent territory then we would stand the
best chance of avoiding embarrassment if it
were possible to relate the obligation to the
imminence of independence in the particular case
concerned.
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