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(ii) An enhanced Private Office.
The Governor would bring
into the Private office a UK-based official to handle
relations with London, and possibly other issues.
This could be a DS 5 Private Secretary, who would
mainly be concerned to manage the paper flow with
London, or a DS 4 Counsellor who could to some extent
act also as a policy adviser to the Governor particularly on relations with China if he was a sinologist. One way of achieving this would be to
accelerate the changes already foreseen in the
Political Adviser's role. The Political Adviser (at
present a DS4) could be brought into GH as soon as the
new Governor arrived, primarily in his existing capacity as the Governor's Adviser on relations with
China. He could then discreetly support the Governor
as well in relations with Whitehall, though he could
not easily interpose himself into the adminstrations
of Hong Kong or relations with LegCo. It would then probably be necessary to bring in another UK-based officer to carry on the Political Adviser's existing
functions in the Government Secretariat. Care would
be needed to ensure that an early move of the
Political Adviser did not disrupt arrangements for
disentangling the intelligence-related aspects of his present job from other functions before 1997 (para 7
above).
pro there would be a UK official in the Governor's
Private Office to assist him in communications with
Whitehall, and possibly provide a degree of independent advice. Ministers could communicate with
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/the Governor