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Stella Lee

The British Government has renewed fears of an exodus of expatriate officials from the territory by admitting working in Hong Kong after 1997 might affect their career prospects in Britain.

  The situation was highlighted in a letter to an expatriate police officer asking about problems of security vetting for jobs in Britain after 1997.

  While the letter reiterated similar pledges made two years ago that working in Hong Kong after next June would not 'in itself' be a bar to jobs or security clearance, it admitted there might be problems on vetting.

 The Hong Kong Government has been passing information like criminal records and political affiliations of people vetted by the Crown to check if they present a security threat.

  But Britain has no formal liaison channel with China on the exchange of such information.

  Some expatriate officers said the uncertainty about future vetting had prompted the early retirement of some of their colleagues and the problem could be extended to local officials and non-civil servants with British passports.

  It is understood at least one top police officer has retired early to avoid jeopardising his son's future in the British military.

  The sons of two other officers were said to have had their British military scholarships application rejected after their fathers indicated they would serve the Special Administrative Region Government after the handover.

  The letter from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said security vetting after 1997 depended in part on those responsible having access to enough information.

  It said: 'Where a person remains working in Hong Kong after 1997, this might affect the information available on that person but no more so than if that person were working in many other foreign countries.

  'Whether or not this would prevent him or her from obtaining security clearance would depend upon a number of factors, and it is simply not possible to give an indication now of how any particular individual might fare some years in the future.

    'What we can say is that every effort would be made to ensure that enough information was available,' it said.

  An expatriate officer said: 'The letter falls short of any assurance. It admitted there might be problems. In fact, it is a warning.'   The vetting problem emerged in 1994 when a British civil servant was told her official security clearance could be in jeopardy because her brother was an expatriate policeman in Hong Kong, married to a local resident.



Fears renewed of exodus by expatriates