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 :(iv) It follows that the Government will not exercise the right, except on traditional service principles, to retire any entitled officer during any period for which he had been promised employment.; but the officer's right to retire (subject to due notice) under the compensation scheme will remain unaffected.

59. We have agreed that officers of Her Majesty s Oversea Civil Service and Judiciary who remain in the Federation Service shall retain their eligibility to be considered by the Secretary of State for transfer to other territories on the understanding that


 * (a) the Secretary of State will not offer such officers transfers without prior consultation with the Federation Government; and


 * (b) the Federation Government for its part will not unreasonably withhold its consent to such transfers.

We further agree that, in order to facilitate the transfer of officers to posts which, in view of, the high level of salaries in the Federation, might be less well paid than an officer's existing post, consideration should be given to a scheme whereby an officer would receive a lump sum payment to compensate him for any drop in pensionable emoluments on transfer.

60.It was suggested by the Staff Associations that the abolition of certain senior posts as the result of decisions taken by the Conference would affect promotion prospects and would therefore constitute a further change in their conditions of service sufficient to warrant the immediate introduction of some measure of compensation available to the public service as a whole. We are unable to accept this contention. The Federation Government possesses and must continue to possess the right, common to all governments, to abolish posts which are no longer required. So long as only a limited number of specified posts are to be abolished, we do not consider that this, in itself, would constitute a major change in the conditions of service of overseas officers but, in order to avoid unsettling the service by opening the door to the arbitrary abolition of an unlimited number of posts, and in accordance with the proposals in paragraph 58, we have agreed that the only posts to be abolished as a result of decisions taken by the Conference are those of the British Advisers and the Financial Secretary. No further pensionable posts will be abolished, except on clear grounds of redundancy, at least until the 1st July, 1957. Consideration will be given to applying to the holders of posts to be abolished now any compensation terms finally agreed for the service as a whole instead of existing abolition of office terms.

61.The Federation Government are very conscious of the difficult problem of filling those vacancies for which local officers are not yet available but for which they will become available in a few years' time. The Malayan Delegation have expressed the hope that arrangements can be made by Her Majesty's Government for the creation of a central pool from which overseas officers could be made available to fill these posts on secondment terms for so long as they may be required.

62.We have arrived at certain constitutional understandings affecting the position of the High Commissioner and Executive Council, the composition of the Executive and Legislative Councils and the withdrawal of the British Advisers. Those affecting the position of the High Commissioner and Executive Council require amendment of Clauses 31 and 32 of the Federation Agreement, and agreed amended versions of these Clauses are set out at Appendix E.

63.With regard to the composition of the Executive and Legislative Councils, we have agreed that Clause 23 of the Federation Agreement shall be amended to make provision for the office of Chief Minister and to provide that the members of (31813)