RECORD OF MEETING HELD AT THE FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE AT
4.00 PM ON 16 AUGUST
Mr RJT McLaren
HACK 1982/1
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 5 Bi 9 OCT 1978
Mr
Murray MacLehose D Bray
RECH RY
Motion T
en
58
Present:
Mr D F Murray
Mr M Macoun
IND
Mr J Thompson
COMMISSIONER OF POLICE
1.
Sir Murray MacLehose said that the PUS had received a letter from his counterpart at the Northern Ireland Office complaining that the Hong Kong; authorities had approached Sir Kenneth Newman, Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary with a view to him becomming Commissioner of Police in Hong Kong. Sir BCubbon had made it clear that the Northern Ireland Office would not agree to release Sir K Newman. The Governor had explained to the PUS that no such approach had in fact been made, though Sir K Newman would have been an outstanding candidate for Hong Kong. Since Sir K Newman was not available he had asked Sir Robert Armstrong and Sir Colin Woods to see if there were any other candidates. This approach had been paralleled by one to Sir Robert from the PUS. Sir R Armstrong had subsequently suggested five possible candid- ates from the UK and the Governor had discussed them with him. In the Governor's view only two of these - Messrs Crane and Pain were worth serious consideration. He had therefore asked Sir R Armstrong whether he would object to the inclusion of Sir Colin Woods in the field. Sir R Armstrong had raised no objection.
2. The Governor confirmed that there were only two possible candidates in Hong Kong: Mr Henry, who had had three years' experience as Deputy Commissioner as well as having been Commis- sioner in other Dependent Territories, and Mr Purdon. The latter was probably ruled out because he had only been in Hong Kong a short time and it was too soon to assess his suitability. The advantage of appointing a local candidate was that it would avoid upsetting senior officers of the Force. However, the Hong Kong Police lacked leadership and the introduction of new blood at lower levels, a process which had already begun, could be helped by the introduction of a new leader. On the other hand matters might be made worse if the new man did not fit in.
3. The Governor said he had lunched with Mr Pain and thought he would probably accept the post of Commissioner if it were offered. In his view Mr Pain might eventually become a good Commissioner but he lacked experience and would face some initial resistance. A possible solution might be to appoint Mr Henry as Commissioner and Mr Pain as Deputy, on the understanding that ir Pain would take over as Commissioner after, say, two years. But the Governor doubted whether such an arrangement would be acceptable to Mr Pain.
SECRET
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14.