CUNF IDENTIAL/AUITEN LOTKAT LUN
VUNFIDENCE
HONG KONG AND INDIAN OCEAN DEPARTMENT
REPORT BY MR MH MORGAN, MR W A DICKSON AND MISS H V TAGGART
APRIL 1976
Head of department
DS 4
PL O'Keeffe
PART II
Responsibilities
Mr O'Keeffe had described his responsibilities in his job description as
"(1) All aspects of our constitutional responsibility for,
and relations with, Hong Kong (with the exception of recruitment for the Hong Kong Administration, which is for G & GD; and certain external matters eg Hong Kong's participation in international organisations on which FED take the lead); vising the work of the Department; responsibility for submissions to Supervising Under-Secretaries and Ministers; policy planning.
super-
(2) All aspects of our relations with Seychelles, notably
the processes for granting independence by June of this year.
(3) All political aspects of the administration of the
British Indian Ocean Territory.
(4) Aid for Seychelles: a matter settled in principle
before I joined the Department but requiring occasional attention."
Workload
2.
He considers that about 45% of his time is spent on Hong Kong affairs and the remainder on Seychelles and Indian Ocean Territories matters. He has commented that within his experience the department is surprisingly busy, busier indeed than some geographical departments dealing with a number of independent countries in a large region of the world. This is of course because of the Secretary of State's constitutional
/responsibility
CONFIDENTIAL/ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE