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Following is the letter referred to in yesterday's OFFICIAL REPORT (Col. 1128) in the initial Answer by The Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations and the Colonies (The Duke of Devonshire) to Lord Colyton's Starred Question on the results of Her Majesty's Government's further discussions with the Staff Association of the former Federal Public Service of Rhodesia and Nyasaland:
In my reply to your Question on the representations of the Staff Association of the former Federal Public Service of Rhodesia and Nyasaland on 29th January I undertook to let you have a written reply covering the detailed points on which you sought information.
Your first point concerned the provision of a sterling basis for the calculation of pensions. In view of the local character of the Federal Public Service and the nature of the Fund from which pensions will be payable, the Governments concerned did not feel able to accept the proposal that pensions should be calculated and paid in sterling. They have agreed, however, that arrangements should be made for every pensioner to have an option between
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having his pension paid in the currency of one of the constituent territories of the former Federation, the choice of territory being his own, or in the currency of all three, in the proportion Southern Rhodesia 5. Northern Rhodesia 4 and Nyasaland 1. In the event of a pensioner failing to make an option his pension will be paid either in the currency of his home territory, his territory of residence, or if he has neither home territory nor territory of residence in the proportion already indicated. Pensions will of course continue to be paid in Federal currency until separate territorial currencies are introduced.
You enquired whether the suggestion of the Staff Association that Federal Pensions should be brought within the scope of the United Kingdom Pensions (Increases) Act had been accepted. This Act provides for the payment of pension supplements to Officers of Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service and certain other persons, for example, members of the Sudan Political Service, for whose recruitment the British Government was responsible. The position of ex-Federal Officers is basically different since they were recruited by their own Government as members of a locally based Service and not by or on behalf of a Secretary of State. Moreover for the British Government, unilaterally, to provide for payments to ex-Federal Officers under the Act would have been inconsistent with the agreement reached on this matter between the Governments concerned.
You also enquired about the Staff Association's proposals for compensation. They suggested that, to give effect to the undertaking by the five Governments to give sympathetic consideration to cases of hardship among officers to whom no offer of further employment was made, there should be a general scheme of compensation, over and above the terminal benefits for the Public Service on which the five Governments had previously agreed (and for which provision was eventually made in the Order in Council). Proposals on these lines were carefully considered, at the instance of the Federal Government: but the territorial Governments and the British Government took the view that a scheme of this nature would go beyond the intentions of the undertaking that had been given and would involve reopening the principles of the agreement on terminal benefits already reached. The Governments have, however, agreed to a scheme for the relief of individual hardship in the case of Officers unable to obtain suitable employment and to the appointment of a Special Commissioner to deal with such cases.
On the question of future security of employment in the Territories. Federal Officers accepting pensionable employment in Northern and Southern Rhodesia will become in all respects Officers of the Public Service of those territories and entitled to the same consideration and treatment as other locally recruited officers. The British Government are confident that the Governments of Northern and Southern Rhodesia accept this position.
Finally you referred to the arrangements for supplementing the Pensions Fund to enable requirements for payment of pensions to be met. The obligations of the three Territorial
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Governments and the British Government to contribute in agreed proportions towards any deficiency revealed by actuarial examination to the extent needed to meet pensions and terminal benefits as laid down in the Second Schedule of the Order in Council will be set
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out in the Public Officers Agreement between the Governments, negotiation of which is nearing completion.
§ House adjourned at twenty-two minutes past eight o'clock.