Mr Thorpe, PSD
HKA 43113
STREP IN CONFIDENZA.
No
- 8 JUL 1981
OFFICER
PA
BRR
сп
POSSIBLE ABSORPTION OF HMOCS OFFICERS INTO THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE
1.
36
I am sorry not to have commented sooner on your minute of 11 June to Mr Brighty, which I found waiting for me when I joined the Department. The problem of whether HMOCS officers can be absorbed into the DS is one with which I am only too familiar from my previous experience in HK & GD and in PPD. But as far as I recall, proposals in the past have been limited to career members of HMOCS. I agree with you that we do not have the same obligations towards contract officers as we, arguably, had towards permanent and pensionable staff.
2. The question therefore is whether there is any advantage to the DS in our absorbing these officers. I am sceptical whether there is. At a time when the DS is contracting uncomfortably fast, the last thing we want to do is bring in extra outsiders unless they can offer essential talents that are not already available within the Service, or unless they come as part of a package that gives us access to at least a corresponding number of new jobs.
3. I am not convinced on the first point. I know that the question of whether we have enough Dependent Territories' expertise in the DS is one that has been raked over again and again. The conclusion usually has been that we are going to run out of such expertise at some time in the not too distant future. But it was never clear whether when that point was reached there would still remain a significant demand for such expertise. I am pretty sure that we are never going to be so hard up for people who can be sent to work in the Dependent Territories that we need to absorb officers of no more than middling quality (e.g. Mr Gillett ), whose only claim to consideration is that they have had experience in Dependent Territories, even though they did not prove particularly good at the work.
38
4. I am not sure what the position is on the second point. Mr Brighty's minute of 8 April suggested that there was a possibility that if we absorbed HMOCS officers we could also acquire the right to control (by which I assume he meant nominate staff to) posts in Dependent Territories which are currently funded by the Territories concerned. I would suggest that we should only pursue this possibility if there really is a chance of our gaining control of a corresponding number of Dependent Territory posts. The conspondere seems live headuy
a comeusion that we endeavour to keep the 7 best contract officers on contract (which could timing, chiffrenèties) & to train D'S offices i DIT skiep
Mw. Mε Quade 49/7 McQuade
ши clint
Not encouraging.
ми
howe
towards
Whether or not we absorb
Chantill
u cauidering. W E Quantrill
Aww Thorpe i canidering.
BAR 817.
7 July 1981
cc: Miss B Brett-Rooks, HK&GD
Mr Goulden, PSD
the former into the DS rod. surely hot affect our present access to,
Control over DT
Personnel Operations Department jour.