ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE
III. Future Policy. Being off the main track of information and gossip flowing from Whitehall, it is difficult to know what form the office will take post- Duncan.
One point that will have to be watched is our relations with B.N.E.C. Under the dynamic Mr. Michael Montague, Chairman of the Asia Committee we have seen far more of touring B.N.E.C. officials in the last four years than we have 3oard of Trade or Diplomatic Service officials. So much so that I have sometimes felt I had a much closer liaison with B.N.E.C. than with any Whitehall department, and on many occasions I greatly appreciated the briefings their visiting officials gave me on trends in Britain and on trade promotion matters. Now a new and equally dynamic star is rising in the shape of Mr. J. Hamm the newly appointed Chairman of the Hong Kong Sub-Committee of the Asia Committee. His opening gambits promise well for British exports to Hong Kong, but at the same time they have some dubious inferences as far as this office is concerned.
But you will be better briefed than I on this, having met Mr. Hamm in London.
It will obviously be right to continue the efforts I have instituted to get closer to the Colonial Govern- ment. It was made clear to me when I arrived that the local government felt that the Board of Trade office had not been sufficiently in sympathy with them. I have tried to remedy this, but there comes a point when one must put one's foot down in an attempt to get the Colonial Government to appreciate the British point of view. Looking back now I think I was wrong to confine relations with the Colonial Government to myself. I should have encouraged the other officers in the Trade Commission to make more contacts at their own levels, especially in the Department of Commerce and Industry. I have been particularly lucky in serving here at a time when Sir David Trench is Governor. He has been very approachable, and in matters of sufficient importance I have always been able to see him, or else have written or minuted direct to him. But he will leave in early 1970, and his successor's name is not yet announced.
-
7-
ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE