Two hundred expatriate officers are expected to sign up for a new association amid the exodus of hundreds of overseas civil servants in the run-up to 1997. The Director of Housing, Tony Miller, who is leading preparations for the Pensionable Overseas Public Servants' Association, said more than 100 people - mainly administrative staff, police officers and members of the Judiciary - had confirmed membership. It will be established in October. Mr Miller, who led a delegation of expatriate administrative officers to Beijing last October, said the Civil Service Branch and the Chinese side had been told about the body. Mainland officials had encouraged formation of the body, he said. They were told as courtesy rather than as a need to seek approval. The association was not a trade union, Mr Miller said, but sought to provide a focal point for expatriates seeing through the transition. 'It gives us a sense of solidarity and . . . some sort of formal representation for discussing any residual issues [with the relevant authorities],' Mr Miller said. He hoped the setting up of the body would help encourage expatriates to stay. 'These have been difficult years for everybody, but particularly for senior local officers. They are the ones who are taking the real risks. We are in a privileged position. We always have the passport in our back pocket,' he said. 'Therefore, we have the feeling that we owe it to ourselves and to our local colleagues to see it through that day, July 1, 1997. We owe it to our local colleagues to stand with them,' he added.