Ли-Гаити
izur
In Mitton
Wower it be kamery to
Downs ported so lan start the frozen of appening offend that he willust be a starker for a visit.
for me
to go to Hong Kong, lave September foltote
?
To: Heads of certain FCO departments
By and Nivanber
to couridar
in alcpred-g
FAMILIARISATION VISITS
Aver
mombour
depr.
тоби
iffi.
Doli
ill-Dand
पाल
Cumulate
(20-ree @ fordu. O'Keeffer reply.
26
1. In his minute of 21 May (not to all) to Heads of geographical departments, my predecessor Mr Whitehead asked for information about the number of Assistants and desk officers who had visited none of the countries with which they dealt.
2. The information contained in the replies to that minute was used as the basis for a submission to the Permanent Under- Secretary, who has agreed that certain additional money which has become available for short duty visits should be used for a modest increase in the number of familiarisation visits by officers working in the FCO, particularly at Assistant and desk officer level.
3. This means that I can invite applications for familiarisation visits with a slightly greater prospect than hitherto of being Var able to agree to them. I shall be prepared to consider appli- cations from all geographical departments, though if there is a moonwhite large number of applications in the near future, it may be necessary
to give priority to those departments who are particularly short been to the of desk officers with experience of the territories they deal with.
Applications should be signed by the Head of Department and in addition to the normal information required for short duty travel applications - purpose of visit, length of stay etc each appli- cation should include specific confirmation
No further action
Too far fad.
отега
зби
4.
(1) that the officer has not visited the territory
concerned (if he has visited it fleetingly, e.g. in transit, or many years ago there may be some room for discretion);
(ii) that he (or she) is unlikely to have any other
opportunity to visit the territory in the normal course of official business;
(iii) that the head of department concerned knows of no
present plans to move the officer from his desk for at least one year from the date of his return from the proposed visit.
Mr Whitehead's minute under reference was not sent to Iloads of functional departments. I am sending copies of this minute to Heads of certain functional departments, because it occurs to me that there may occasionally be a case for an officer in one of these departments to pay a familiarisation visit e.g. to an international organisation with which he deals. If so, the Iload of department concerned is welcome to apply, bearing in ind however that desk officers should wherever possible be given opportunities for familiarisation by including them in delegations to international meetings. In the case of functional departments we shall need to pay particular attention to the criterion at para 3(ii) above.
Histan Hunth.
A J Hunter
Personnel Services Department
./.
9 July 1976
"
}