TNAG-2422-FCO40-3524-Hong-Kong-Her-Majesty-s-Overseas-Civil-Service-(HMOCS)-poli-1992 — Page 22

CONFIDENTIAL

HKA 233/1

297

Mr Ricketts, HKD

the fox

Dhrs

M

Mh Store for action today please

мяг

Drow

Hong Kong : Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service Pensions

The Secretary of State was grateful for your submission of 24 April which he saw overnight and discussed at today's working lunch with the Governor of Hong Kong.

The Secretary of State concluded that he should write to the Chief Secretary but would be grateful if the draft minute could be expanded slightly to include a reference to the threat of judicial review if HMOCS do not accept the package offered to them.

I think the Secretary of State also took note of Mr Patten's very strong view that a sterling safeguard for HMOCS pensions was, in Mr Patten's words, "essential".

The Secretary of State also said, half in jest but also seriously, that he would want to ask Mr Goodlad to go to the Treasury and hammer out an agreement at some point in the next month or two. The Secretary of State agrees that it is important to settle the issue before Mr Patten's arrival in the Colony.

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29 April 1992

CC: PS

PS/Mr Goodlad PS/PUS

Sir J Coles

Mr Burns

Mr Muir

Mr Kerby, ODA

Mr Fish, ODA

Mr Davies, FED

Miss Brooks, Legal Advisers

Mr Wye, RAD

News Department

RMD

CONFIDENTIAL

R. H. Th

(R HT Gozney)