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Reference
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Alt
Mr January WIAD
104/2
CC: Mr Fearn
Mr Kirk, SED
Mr Pearce, POD
(2
GOVERNORS
I read Mr Scott's paper on the qualities required of a Governor, attached to your minute of 22 February to Mr Footman, with close interest.
1.
2.
I tend to agree with Mr Pearce (his minute of 17 February) in that I question whether we should explicitly accept that a Governor should identify so closely with his territory to the extent Mr Scott suggests. A Governor clearly needs to identify closely with his territory: it is a question of how far this should go. He should surely owe ultimate accountability to the Secretary of State, who is responsible to Parliament for the good government of all HM colonies, or Dependent Territories, and not just for their foreign relations, defence and internal security. I believe that such accountability should loom larger than Mr Scott implies, and that the local people should be aware of, and appreciate, this. The PUS set out the order of priorities for Gibraltar in a very helpful manner in his letter of 8 February to Sir M Quinlan, which SED attached to their minute of 27 February. I do not think we should regard that simply as a one-off special case.
3. Over-identification has certainly been a problem with the Falklands, and leads me to be rather chary of showing these papers to former Governors of that territory. I believe that it is possible to make too much of the differences between the qualities needed from Governors and heads of diplomatic missions. Their situations, and the demands and strains put on them, are certainly different. But the qualities of resourcefulness, political dexterity and ability to reconcile different interests which both call for are not markedly different. Do we ask too much of Governors, and too little of Ambassadors?
A
4. I believe a major difference, and cause of difficulty, is that Governors are much more isolated, even in these days of easy telephone and fax communications. This may be largely because they rarely have anybody they can unwind with. The (minimal) DS staff they have appear (and I can only really speak for the Falklands, although it seems to apply in other territories) to be either too junior or, more to the point, of inappropriate calibre to make any relaxed intimacy likely to be possible. This is not a matter of companionship, but applies to their work. The sort of relationship an Ambassador can enjoy with a good Counsellor or Head of Chancery for example is just not available. I suspect few of those on Governors' staffs could expect to become Governors themselves in future. It may be worth considering increasing the quality of Governors' support staff. I know that POD have identified a few DS posts in DTS as training jobs for future Governors. Could this programme be extended? The number of colonial Governorships is unlikely to decrease in the foreseeable future and pressures to fill them from within the DS will increase. A pool of potential
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