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HMOCS Hong Kong Pensions
:
The Secretary of State had a brief word with the Chief Secretary in the margins of Cabinet today about Hong Kong pensions. The Secretary of State said that we were not making much headway: would it be possible for the Chief Secretary to prevail upon his officials to show more flexibility? The Chief Secretary said he had exactly the opposite impression, namely that the FCO was showing no flexibility at all, and his officials were responding in kind. He was keen to negotiate a solution with both sides giving some ground. The Ministers concluded that a meeting would probably be be required between them, with one or two officials present on each side, to reach a settlement.
The Secretary of State had a word separately with the Governor of Hong Kong who also expressed some eagerness to reach an agreement. He was content for negotiations between the FCO and the Treasury to proceed.
We will now set up a meeting before the summer recess to try and resolve the issue. We will need to have a paper from officials which, as far as possible, should be agreed between ourselves and the Treasury. With this steer from the Ministers involved, you might even be able to make some progress in negotiations at official level. The Secretary of State has in mind cutting the sort of deal he discussed earlier with the Prime Minister, namely splitting the difference, but we should glide slowly down to that level and do better than that if we can.
form Sawer
(R J Sawers)
1 July 1993
CC : PS
PS/Mr Goodlad
Sir John Coles
Mr Hum APS
CONFIDENTIAL
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