CONFIDENTIAL
2
opposite view could be argued quite convincingly. One of my colleagues feels rather strongly that, as he puts it, "whizz kids in their 30s or trendies in their 40s" are unlikely to achieve anything other than personal frustration in the small, poor remaining dependencies and that, depending on the stage of constitutional development that has reached, the main need from the point of view of Britain and the dependencies themselves is for able, stable, mature officers who can quickly win and retain respect at all levels and can give sound advice to Ministers behind the scenes.
Para 6
In my experience attempts to equate Hong Kong with DS ranks tend to be painfully contentious. I wonder whether you could not make your point equally effectively without directly equating ranks? If you see no objection, I would like to suggest that you omit "who is supposed to equate with a DS 3 officer" in the sixth line and that the sentence in the brackets be changed to read: "(as opposed to a DS officer of the same
age who would probably be a First Secretary on about £ 6,000 p.a.)".
圭
A further point is
that differences in costs and standards of living make comparisons of salaries difficult; if parallels must be drawn, they should be between Hong Kong salaries and the salaries and allowances paid to DS officers serving overseas. In this connection, you may be interested to learn that, despite the fall in the value of the pound sterling, we still have to top up the salaries of Hong Kong officers attached to British Embassies and Missions to equate their emoluments with those of their DS counterparts. In practice I find
one can usually avoid odious comparisons by discussing the practical issue of which post a secondee should occupy, without implying that the post is necessarily of equivalent rank to his own.
Para 7
I am afraid that experience in Hong Kong may not be entirely relevant to the problems which officers have to face in other dependencies. However, we are certainly willing to assist by
/ earmarking....