CODE 18-77
RESTRICTED
Reference
HKA 430/5
RECEIVED WE ARTY
3 0 MAY 1979
DISK OFFICER
INDEX
RA
Mrs Gregory, Hong Kong & General Department
No
坛
LAST
O
2
LENGTH OF TOURS OF GOVERNORS
1214)
Thank you for sending me a copy of Mr Guy's despatch of 30 April. I confirm that it certainly makes sense to wait until the DTSAB has met and, as we hope, agreed to extend Mr Guy's tour for another year.
2.
Meanwhile I have a few immediate comments on this despatch:
(a)
I am not sure that there is much substance in his idea that the tours of Governors who are appointed from the Diplomatic Service have to be "tailored to fit" the posting pattern of Diplomatic Service officers. I thought that the three year period, which of course has been reduced from the five year period which used to be the norm, had been chosen because of the strains which Governors in very small islands have to face.
In my short time
in WIAD we have seen several Governors who have found three years almost too much while at the same time there have been others who have thrived and for whom we have arranged extensions.
(b)
The functions of a Governor are obviously very different from those of a Head of Mission in a diplomatic post but the main difference as I see it is not mentioned in the despatch and that is that Governors have to make executive decisions, sometimes without any time for reference back to London, and have to stand or fall by the wisdom of such decisions. The dual interests they represent are not so different from the way in which any Head of Mission has to operate. They are both in effect Mr Facing Both Ways although Governors clearly have to be the spokesmen for their constituents in a different way and sometimes far more pugnaciously than Heads of Mission.
(c)
Time is certainly needed to create trust and the arguments for this based on the unpredictable whims of professional officers, particularly in the fields of renewable natural resources, are cogent. Against this there is the risk of Governors becoming played out with the strains of daily contact with difficult politicians in small islands.
Pes
P C Duff
West Indian and Atlantic Department
29 May, 1979
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