is
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London S.W.
RC. REGISTRY
1 9 OCT 1971
CONFIDENTIAL
SAVING DESPATCH
RC 216/77/09
From the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
To the Governor of Hong Kong
18 October 1971
No 336
Your saving despatch No Staff 69
RECRUITMENT OF INSPECTORS OF POLICE
1.
We see no objection to the line of action proposed in your paragraph 2 so far as recruitment in South Africa is concerned. We think it important that the Hong Kong Government, when advertising in South Africa, should stipulate the possession of a UK passport as a qualification for appointment.
2. As regards recruitment in Southern Rhodesia there would of
It would be undesirable course be the problem of allegiance.
to accept into the service of the Crown a Rhodesian Police Officer who had presumably been serving a regime in rebellion against the Crown. Our Embassy in Pretoria, to whom a copy of your saving despatch No 89 was sent, have commented as follows -
3.
"For political reasons the Hong Kong Government would presumably have to employ a South African agent and have those Rhodesians who answered their advertisement interviewed in South Africa. The recruits would then quite possibly attract attention from the Rhodesian Security Police who might give them or their families a difficult time."
In all the circumstances we think it would be inadvisable
for you to a dvertise in the Rhodesian press.