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2.
adviser will be the newly-appointed Financial Secretary, a man who is good at estimates but lacks political flair and authority.
The Deputy Governor, a BV Islander, is a colourless but sound
establishment man. The Development Division are too far away to
be able to provide day-to-day support of the sort required.
Mr. Davidson will therefore have no-one to turn to for advice in
handling some pretty fly and unscrupulous politicians.
3.
Mr. Davidson is at present our High Commissioner in Brunei and has been in London for the recent negotiations with the Sultan.
He then met for the first time Mr. Duff of WIAD who commented that
"a Governor needs a sense of humour, patience and tolerance, all of which I suspect Mr. Davidson has in plenty. He also needs to be
canny,
imaginative, sometimes unorthodox, to have an earthy wit, some blarney and much bounce and above all quite a bit of steel. These
qualities I miss. Mr. Davidson is too indecisive to be a Governor."
Mr. Duff would argue that a Governor needs either relevant dependent territories experience or alternatively the wit and character to
overcome its absence and that Mr. Davidson has neither. Mr. Stratton
would endorse this description of the requirement for the job and
shares some of Mr. Duff's doubts. But, having met Mr. Davidson,
Mr. Stratton would be inclined to take a chance and to allow the
appointment to stand.
4.
All appointments contain an element of risk. In assessing
the risk in this case, Personnel Operations Department would hope
that Mr. Davidson's career as a whole would be taken into account.
Mr. Davidson's 21 years as a Naval Officer before he joined the
Service have given him more experience of direct command than most:
he spent approximately 10 years as Executive or Commanding Officer
of destroyers and spent the last two years of his service as
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