TNAG-0266-FCO40-302-Responsibility-of-UK-for-colonial-expatriate-pensions-of-Hon-1972 — Page 56

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LM Aran

حمد

CONFIDENTIAL

must reserve our final position on this

particular issue until we have had an

opportunity of consulting the Governor.

O.D.M.'s proposals (paragraph 42) are

not acceptable to the F.C.0. since it

would be invidious to include some of the

non-independent territories and exclude

others.

In particular, deliberately to

exclude Hong Kong while including other

dependent territories could lead to

considerable political difficulties with

the colony. (Hong Kong's expatriate

pensions liability is only £650,000 a year

and is not an open-ended commitment.)

We should therefore press for the

inclusion of all these territories.

If

this proves unacceptable we should fall

back on obtaining a limited inclusion of

dependent territories on the following

basis:

i)

ii)

Special arrangements on the lines

to be offered to independent

countries would be offered to those

dependent territories having

executive Public Service

Commissions as and when they

reached that stage of

constitutional development;

For the other dependent

territories we would undertake to

take account of their expenditure

on expatriate pensions in

assessing their needs for

development aid.

If we succeed in getting any changes

made to O.D.M.'s proposals, paragraph 42 of

CONFIDENTIAL

/the