CONFIDENTIAL
13 May 1992
HKA 233/1
Mrs S D Brown
HM Treasury
Parliament Street
LONDON
SW1
Dear Sandra,
HONG KONG HMOCS
301
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
London SWIA 2AH
PA (315
1.
2.
Thank you for your letter of 5 May.
We were surprised to learn that you were unhappy about the drafting of the reference to early retirement in Nigel Cox's letter of 28 April to Michael Cartland. Our legal advice has consistently emphasised the importance of our conducting, and being seen to conduct, our consultations with HMOCS officers' representatives in an open-minded way. It would have been wrong and dangerous to state in advance of these consultations that Ministers had taken final decisions on any of the matters raised by HMOCS officers.
3. In any case the HMOCS Association Committee took no comfort from these words and accuse us of having persuaded Ministers to take a negative view on the basis of inadequate information: I enclose a copy of Cartland's letter of 4 May.
4. I also enclose Nigel Cox's and Dave Fish's summary account of their consultations in Hong Kong, which took place from 7-11 May. We are now taking stock, and will be putting forward recommendations as soon as possible.
You may be interested to know that the Hong Kong Government have just decided to extend the new pension scheme option deadline by six months to 31 December 1992 and have so informed the staff associations. (We are considering whether it will be necessary again to extend the deadline for contract officers opting for pensionable terms and HMOCS membership). The HMOCS Association will be grateful for this extra breathing-space. But it does not affect our view that it is vital to resolve matters as quickly as possible, and in particular before Mr Patten takes up the Governorship on 9 July.
NJCACF
CONFIDENTIAL
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