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The Old Farmhouse,
Nethercote Road,
Tackley
OXON, OXS SAW
21 June 1988
Thank you for your letter of 18 May to which
I am only now replying, and reluctantly, for I really do find it distasteful to be cast in the role of arguing with my employer, admittedly on behalf of many besides myself , but on my own behalf too nevertheless.
Implied evidence to this effect i
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to be found in the attached notes of a little talk I gave the other day to the members of this year Oxford course.
2.
As I have said before, it is not for me to suggest what should be done to alleviate the injustice/hardship being experienced by expatriate pensioners who have retired and returned in the past 10 years or so and I take it, from the absence of any, so to speak, hostile, comment in your letter, that the case I have put to you is accepted.
As I read your letter, whilst arguing that HMG bas moral obligation to members of HMOCS, you admit that the government of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong is still, in business and is still responsible, therefore for the pensions of its retired employees; and you accept that the linked system is within the policy prerogative of the Hong Kong Government.
So far s0 good, but is a lack of enthusiasm for the case evidenced in your reason for @(having) another go at XEO), namely, @HMG's negative response to date0?
I am no apologist for HMG but, on this occasion, HMG is not at fault.
3.
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It seems to me that there are three quite
separate reques
rastes and, unless they are considered separately, only confusion will result, viz (1) the value of pensions currently being paid to those expatriate pensioners who have returned whence they were recruited by the Secretary of State on behalf of the Hong Kong Government and who are not, fortuitously, being protected against adverse shifts in the sterling exchange rate by the pre-1976 SPOS rules; (2) the payment and value of pensions due to all expatriate pensioner after 1 July 1997; (3) the payment of pensions earned during Crown service by all other employees and ex-employees of the Hong Kong Government.
4.
As regards (1): there would normally be something in the argument that it is the Hong Kong Government' policy to pay pensions in Hong Kong dollars and, therefore, @there are no plans to change that policy@, if expatriate pensioners were exposed to the same exchange risk as before, but
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