ADMIN IN CONFIDENCE
SECTION 2: IDEAL ESTABLISHMENT
1.
I accept the proposal that the ideal establishment for the present DS7 post should be down-graded to DS9. I have always made it clear that the important thing in this post is to have the right person, rather than the exact grade. However, as the Inspectors point out, it is essential that the person occupying this post should be a Chinese linguist, and this means in practice that it must be a person who has just graduated from the FCO Chinese course. I agree that a good graduate Grade 9 will be able to do the job adequately. However, there is one point which should be borne in mind and discussed with the geographical departments. For the next 10 years or so there will be a continuing need for policy capable officers with a sound background in the Hong Kong/China relationship to fill key jobs in London and Hong Kong. This post offers by far the best training for a person emerging from language training in this area. Equivalent posts in the Political Adviser's Office will be disappearing shortly. The Embassy in Peking is now much less closely involved. While it is no doubt true that this post does not offer experience of "Embassy life" (whatever that may be!), it does offer something which few DS7s get their hands on, which is direct experience of negotiation with a formidable adversary. From a longer term management point of view it might well make sense to overbear with a DS7 in order to produce people with the right qualifications at a slightly later stage. In practice I assume that this will be necessary initially, since so far as I know there is no DS9 currently available with the language ability and presumably will not be until one has been put through training, if that is what is decided.
ADMIN IN CONFIDENCE
A good point