The Hon. Francis Maude, M.P.
-2-
The
26 January, 1990
"we do not think that it would be compatible with the agreement on the future of Hong Kong for HMOCS officers who elect to remain in service in Hong Kong after 1997 to continue to be regarded as serving members of HMOCS. Nor do I think that this would be acceptable to the Chinese Government".
The loss of the Secretary of State's responsibility for and the resultant protection of members of HMOCS at the time of con- stitutional change arising from the cessation of Colonial status has invariably meant that a general compensation scheme has been introduced to enable officers to retire prematurely with compen- sation. Although her Majesty's Government may not have specif- ically stated that there will be a general compensation scheme for Hong Kong, the inference of these assurances is that there must be such a scheme in the run-up to the transfer of sovereignty in 1997. We feel therefore that the third paragraph of your letter
Whilst it may indicates a retreat from those previous assurances. certainly be desirable for expatriate officers to continue to serve in the employment of the Hong Kong S.A.R. government after 1st July 1997, including continuing to serve on pensionable terms, there must be, as has been the case in all other former dependent territories, a compensation scheme to enable officers to retire prematurely if they are not willing to serve or wanted by the successor government.
In the third paragraph of your letter you make the legalistic point that after 1997 public servants will not be working for the Chinese, as their employer will be the Hong Kong S.A.R. Government. However, as stated in the quotations above, sovereignty of the territory will have passed to the Chinese, and the Chinese are enacting the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. Although within the terms of the Basic Law the Hong Kong S.A.R. will have considerable autonomy, in the final analysis a post-1997 Chinese Government could take control of Hong Kong ultimately by force (as was demon- strated in Beijing in June 1989). It is such a possibility that is undermining the morale of the Service in Hong Kong, and one of the measures necessary to bolster that morale is the knowledge that in the context of the coming into effect of the Basic Law in 1997, officers will be able to retire from pensionable service with their pension and with compensation for the loss of their career and/or their career prospects. We would welcome, and more importantly the Service in Hong Kong requires, an assurance that, as in the case of all former dependent territories, a general compensation scheme will be introduced at the appropriate time in the run-up to the transfer of sovereignty.
Your final paragraph deals with the operation of the Limited Compensation Scheme, which we understand has been introduced to cover the situation of expatriate officers affected by the need to accelerate the localisation of the Service in the run-up to 1997.
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