CO537-5142 — Page 117

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any means fanciful to imagine circumstances in which the Colonial Office might be able to offer you at least as good candidates as the B.B.C., if not better, and ones who would probably be a good deal more readily available. I do not want to mention names at this stage; but I can think of at least three people not in. the B.B.C., all with extensive broadcasting experience, whose qualities and qualifications for one or other of the two posts mentioned in your letter the B.B.C. would in my view be unlikely to match among candidates from its own staff.

I am led to the conclusion that your own interests, as well as those of the B.B.C., would be better served by a rather less rigid scheme than you have proposed. By all means second two Chinese Programme Assistants to the B.B.C., and, declare, if you will, that you will probably be glad to replace them at the end of a period of, say, three years. But my advice would be that you should not try to put the B.B.C. under any stricter obligation than would obviously be implied in some such wording as "we would hope that în return, if the Hong Kong Broadcasting Service were in need of a Programme Director, News Editor or other English staff it would not only continue to benefit from the Corporation's normal willingness to bring Colonial broadcasting vacancies to the notice of its staff and to release any candidates selected, but that, if no other equally well qualified and acceptable candidate could be found than a member of its staff who made his cândidature conditional upon secondment, the B.B.C. would do its utmost to second him."

I realise that you asked for Blackburne's opinion and what you have got is only mine, not necessarily equally valuable. I will see that he sees this letter as soon as he comes back, and if he wants to add to or detract from my views, I am sure he will speedily do so. Please treat this, therefore, as an interim reply.

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