§ 5. Mr. Tilneyasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the increases of pensions of expatriate officers to bring them up to the level of the United Kingdom Pensions Increase Act, 1959, were made before the grant of independence to British Somaliland.
§ Mr. J. AmeryI regret that Ministers of the Somaliland Government did not agree before independence to legislate such increases.
It is proposed therefore to request Her Majesty's Ambassador in Mogadishu to invite the attention of the Government of the Somali Republic to the provisions of the United Kingdom Pensions (Increase) Act, 1959. It will be represented to that Government that it would be equitable to grant similar increases to former expatriate members of the public service of the Somaliland Protectorate.
§ Mr. TilneyIs my hon. Friend aware that in answer to a letter written in mid-May by the East and Central African Colonial Service Pensioners' Association to his office, a reply was received on 25th May that the question was under urgent consideration with the Somaliland Government which at that time was a grant-aided Protectorate? Is he aware that I myself wrote to the Minister of State about it long before Somaliland obtained her independence? Can he say what action was taken by his office in meetings with representatives from the Somaliland Protectorate before the grant of independence, and does he not feel that this inaction has a bad effect on the morale of the Overseas Civil Service elsewhere, other than in Somaliland?
§ Mr. AmeryRepresentations were made to the Somaliland Ministers, but in the short time available before independence it was not possible for them to introduce legislation which in their view might have led to misunderstanding or criticism.