Mr Murray
PS
25/My Blaker.
Afb to came
4KK430 RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51 2 2 OCT 1979
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
PA
MP'S LETTER:
Problem
HONG KONG: MRS C V PENHEAROW
1. To give a further interim reply to Viscount Cranborne MF
Conservative), who wrote to Mr Blaker on 24 July
(Dorset S
about a constituent's complaint against the Hong Kong Government.
Mr Blaker acknowledged Viscount Cranborne's letter on 1 August.
Recommendation
2.
I recommend that Mr Blaker should write to Lord Cranborne
on the lines of the attached draft.
Background
3.
Lord Cranborne's constituent, Mrs C V Penhearow, is the
widow of a building services engineer who died in Hong Kong
last January, where he was employed by the Hong Kong Government.
She claims that she lost over £300 because of the fall in the
value of the Hong Kong dollar between the time of her husband's
death and the time she received the outstanding salary and a
tax refund due to him from the Hong Kong Government. In his
letters of 7 and 27 September, Mr So of the Hong Kong Civil
Service Branch took the line that the delays in making the
payments were not excessive, and that the Hong Kong Government
could not be held responsible for losses arising from exchange
rate fluctuations. I am sure that the Hong Kong Government
did handle Mrs Penhearow's case as sympathetically as possible
and that there can be no question therefore of holding them
formally responsible for her loss. Nonetheless, I believe that
/there
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