CONFIDENT IAL
5. When the Hong Kong Office was simply an out-station of the Board of Trade, there were relatively few problems arising from the status of the officers. Now that the post is looked after by the Diplomatic Service, the numerous anomalies in its position must be regarded as more important. On the question of privileges and immunities, for instance, it appears that the Trade Commissioner
and his staff have no de jure rights to special treatment. The Trade Commissioner is included in the colony's table of precedence
after career Consuls and he and his staff are given Consular cards
and exempted from payment of municipal rates. These seem to be
the result of local decisions and do not give the holders any right to customs privileges. Nor would it seem that our personnel
in Hong Kong have any of the immunities flowing from the Vienna
Conventions. Probably they would be granted such privileges if
the occasion arose on an ad hoc basis, but there appears to be no
formal definition of such privileges. It is also curious that the
post has no direct communications link with London but has to route
all its telegrams through Hong Kong Government channels. Finally,
there appears to be no Department within the Foreign or Common- wealth offices which has any kind of supervisory responsibility
over the Trade Commission. The bulk of their work is with the
Board of Trade but clearly the Board of Trade cannot be responsible
for a Diplomatic Service post. In practice, Personnel Department seem to act as the Department within the Office with responsibility
for the Trade Commission and this is not very satisfactory.
6.
Following his recent inspection of the Trade Commission, Mr. Murray has suggested that the future development of the Trade Commission may include a move towards some kind of political status.
Mr. Murray points out that the strains implicit in the nature of Hong Kong/British relationships has meant and will mean even more
in the future that the Governor of Hong Kong must represent the
interests of the Colony. At the same time, it is becoming
increasingly important that Britain should be able to represent her
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