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Aaron Mrs. Gregory
Mr Maclaren
Hong Kong and General Department
INSPECTION OF GIBRALTAR
1.
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Mr. Antill F27/12.
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تشما
58
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This is meeful lants gurb future reference. Oborily there will be problems
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Convent
1 كليما بالمقلة
appointed
شت
Civilian Governor
only consider
there when it
In paragraphs 3 and 4 of your minute to me of 28: September you suggested that I should have a look at the Convent, when I was in Gibraltar, and let you have informally any views I had on its state. You said that it would not be
appropriate for me to make any formal expression of views, because responsibility for the Convent rests with the Ministry of Defence and not the FCO.
2.
egy 8. Gregory
7/12.
The Governor very kindly took me on a conducted tour of the building. It is indeed a beautiful, as well as an historic, Residence and it seemed to me to be both excellently maintained and very well furnished. The public rooms are fully up to any Grade 1 Embassy that I have seen and there is ample and good accommodation for guests, together with a private wing for the Governor and his wife. At the moment work is advanced on refurbishing a wing of the building as a suite for Royal visitors. As one might expect, this is being very well done.
3. As far as I could tell, therefore, in a rather rapid tour there are no immediate problems and certainly none of which the PSA will not be aware. For the future a problem would arise if we ever decided to put in a civilian governor. General Jackson said that in those circumstances he thought that the Ministry of Defence would at once withdraw from the present arrangement, whereby they pay for the Convent while the Gibraltar Government pays the salary of the Covernor. Strictly speaking it would be for the Gibraltar Government to resume financial responsibility for the Convent. But General Jackson and Mr O'Neill doubted very much whether they would be either willing or able to maintain the Convent in its present state of excellence. In those cir- cumstances the FCC would presumably have to decide whether, and if so to what extent, they would supplement any financial commitment of the Gibraltar Government to the Convent. I have made a reference to this in our main Report, merely to put down a marker.
4. I would only add here that if any civilian governor came from the Diplomatic Service and was given either DS 2 or DS 3 grading (I am minuting separately on that) the Convent would be a Residence above the normal provision for those grades. But, as in a number of other cases of that kind, that would presumably be a situation with which we would have to live unless we were prepared to make a complete break with the past over the Governor's Residence.
HKA 364
HKA 41 1/479/1
EX
28 November 1916 No
- 7 DEC 1973
ADMINISTRATION:
NO. ST
P.P.
Книги
R M Russell
Chief Inspector
IN CONFIDENCE
Original at: HKA 414/479/1
This Copy for:
Information only / Action an Pera(s)