收
"PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPT.
-
PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER"
COPY
For action
蚣::
di
2.
in
54376/1/49 HONG KONG
He
At the suggestion of Mr. Ralph Murray of the Foreign Office, Mr. Pepper, who is mentioned in (14), came to see me yesterday. He is at present out of a job as he could not for family reasons accept the Foreign Office offer of appointment as Information Officer in Batavia. I gather that his previous experience consists of several years in Advertising in the United Kingdom before the war, some years in the Army during the war (including service in S.0.E), and service as Information Officer for the Foreign Office in Indo-China, Siam and Canton. does not speak Mandarin or Cantonese, but he has a fair knowledge of the Chinese people from his service in South- East Asia. He is most anxious to secure employment either in Hong Kong or in Singapore, and he explained that his sole reason for not being willing to go to Batavia was because he did not feel that it would be right to expose his wife and small child to possible dangers in Batavia after the trying time they had had since the war in other countries in South-East Asia.
I discussed Mr. Pepper with Mr. Rayner, the Regional Information Officer in Singapore today. Mr. Rayner has a high opinion of Mr. Pepper, and thinks that he may possibly have an opening for him in his own office. He added that he understood that the Government of Hong Kong did not think very much of Mr. Pepper for some reason which he did not know. They definitely would not accept him as the Regional Information Office Representative in Hong Kong, and he thought it highly unlikely that they would accept him as P.R.O. He added that he understood that the Government of Hong Kong were now contem- plating the appointment of Mr. Leslie Smith, formerly the Kemsley Press correspondent in China, as assistant to Mr. Harmon. The idea was that Mr. Smith would take over from Mr. Harmon when other employment was found for the latter. Information about Mr. Smith is at (39) in 96038/1(15)/49, but Mr. Rayner said that the information about Mr. Smith's future in that letter is completely out-of-date.
We must now wait for a reply from (14), but in due course I must inform Mr. Pepper whether there is likely to be any opening for him. His full name and address is:-
54376/1
D. S. W. Pepper,
9, Buckingham Palace Mansions,
S.W.1
(Sloane 6866)
K. W. Blackburne
29.11.49
Page 70Page 71