1
Chief Secretary
CONFIDENTIAL
FROM: The Secretary of State
DATE: 4 February 1992
HONG KONG: HER MAJESTY'S OVERSEAS CIVIL SERVICE
1.
Since the closing stages of the negotiation of the Joint
Declaration in 1984 Ministers have looked several times at
what arrangements should be made for the members of HM
Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS) serving in Hong Kong at the
transfer of sovereignty in 1997. The Joint Declaration itself contains certain guarantees of continuity of career, salaries and pensions, but does not provide (and could not
have provided) two other elements which we have traditionally ensured, in furtherance of commitments in the
HMOCS White Papers of 1954 and 1960:
(a)
(b)
compensation for loss of HMG's protection and of career
prospects; and
sterling safeguards: a guarantee that pensions will be
paid at a fixed rate to sterling.
2. The question of our providing compensation was agreed in
principle between our predecessors in 1988. John Major, in
his letter of 19 December 1988 to
Geoffrey Howe, noted that
PES handling of the funds involved (then estimated at between £10 and £20 million over the 10 years from 1997)
could not be settled so far in advance: Ministers would want
to agree how to meet the obligation in the light of the circumstances then prevailing.
NIKABQ/1
CONFIDENTIAL
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