ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE
(w/2
Permanent Under Secretary
through Mr Cortazzi
1.
You asked me to put on paper a note of the points I had made orally to you about management of the affairs of colonial dependencies in the F and CO.
2. There have been two major changes in the past decade which need to be taken into account. First, the disbandment of the Colonial Office and absorption of its central management functions in the F and C O has led to a dilution of expertise and know-how at the centre on many matters. of colonial policy and administrative technique. Departments in the Office dealing with dependencies now have to rely greatly upon the personal experience of individual officers with backgrounds in colonial administration. Situations sometimes arise when the expertise in the Office falls short of that in the field. It should not be necessary for a Governor to have to explain matters of principle to headquarters - but it happens!
3. The second change is that with the move to independence of all but the smallest colonies (with the most intractable problems) we are left with dependencies where the Governor may have no deputy and often lacks also an echelon of British colonial civil servants to advise and support him. (There are exceptions such as Hong Kong.) This has made it all the more important that the F and C O should provide the understanding, counsel and support which in a previous era was often supplied by a Governor or High Commissioner with responsibilities for a larger area (for example the Governor of the Windward and Leeward Islands or the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific). In the absence of such a regional supervisor it is incumbent upon the F and C O to provide the kind of service of which Governors in isolated dependencies stand very much in need.
4.
You mentioned the change in approach which had followed the absorption of Colonial Office functions into the F and C 0. I expressed the view that this largely reflected the fact that officers with dimplomatic training tended naturally to be more interested and more expert in external affairs and to give that aspect more attention; whereas it is in the domestic area where the Governor stands often in the greatest need of support and advice - for example on labour relations, land policy, education, finance, internal security, constitutional matters, the civil service and so on. And on such matters we need to follow broadly consistent and uniform policies in all territories. For these reasons I advocated grouping colonial dependencies into a single department or departments which could be manned by experts in this field but could collaborate with geographic departments on external
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ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE
/problems