Mr. Godden
Reference........
HWB 1/TRENCH
(29
Williams
Mr. Carter's minute of 29 May to Mr. (Flag F) was, I believe, passed on to you by Mr. Brighty. The minute dealt with the despatch from Hong Kong at (5) forwarding a number of petitions asking for Sir David Trench's tour of
office as Governor to be extended. With his minute
Mr.Carter put forward a draft letter to Sir Michael Adeane and a draft despatch to Hong Kong concerning the replies to be sent to the petition.
I asked Miss Meehan to let me have this file back since a further despatch has arrived from Hong Kong (now at (16)) enclosing further petitions on the same subject.
3. We have now had ten volumes of petitions of various kinds: they are addressed to The Queen, to the Secretary of State, to Her Majesty's Government and to various recipients not specified. I have kept the petitions here because of their bulk, but they are available whenever you want them.
4. The position as regards a decision on the question of the extension of the Governor's term of
office is as follows. The Prime Minister has indicated that he would support the Secretary of State's proposal to recommend an extension of one
year,
subject to any views that the Foreign Secretary may have.
The Far Eastern Department are, at the moment, preparing a submission to the Foreign Secretary on this subject. Whichever way the final decision may go, I suggest that it would be advisable to dispose of the petitions beforehand as recommended by Mr. Carter in the drafts attached to his minute (Flags G and H). If you agree with this view, then I will let you have the two volumes of petitions addressed to The Queen for enclosing with the letter to be sent to Sir Michael Adeane. We can also
dispose of the remaining petitions as proposed in paragraph 3 of Mr. Carter's minute.
AR
(A. W. Gaminara)
25 July, 1968
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