§ 1. Mrs. Castleasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what are the criteria which govern the inclusion of locally recruited European officers in the Kenya civil service among the designated officers under the Overseas Service Aid Scheme.
§ The Secretary of State for the Colonies (Mr. Reginald Maudling)The criteria for designation are set out in Clause 1 of the Overseas Service (Kenya) Agreement 1961 and I am sending the hon. Member a copy. A copy is already in the Library of the House.
§ Mrs. CastleIs it not a fact that there are about 1,000 European officers in Kenya who were locally recruited, in many cases were locally born, who were not recruited by or on behalf of the Colonial Secretary but who have been designated on the ground that they were employed before the publication of Colonial 306? Are there not a number of Asian officers in exactly the same position, but who have not been designated simply because they had not reached the salary stage arbitrarily fixed for the right to convert under the Lidbury provision? Is not this a quite unjustified distinction, and will the right 188 hon. Gentleman look at the matter again?
§ Mr. MaudlingThis is a very complicated matter, but the provisions for deciding who should be designated were worked out in consultation with the staff associations and were approved by the full Kenya Whitley Council.
§ Mrs. CastleIs it not a fact that the staff association is protesting against this discrimination? Members of Parliament have received a lot of correspondence on this point. They are totally unsatisfied with the answer, and will not the Government look at the matter again?
§ Mr. MaudlingI am always prepared to consider any problem again, but these things were worked out very carefully with the staff association, and as far as I know, having looked at the matter carefully, they are fair.