}
an officer should have a status independent of the
Secretary of Chinese Affairs, that is to say, instead
of their being a "Secretary for Chinese and External
Affairs", to whose Department the Embassy representative
would be attached, there should be a Secretary for
Chinese Affairs and a Secretary for External Affairs,
the latter being a Foreign Service officer, who
would be responsible direct to the Governor and
also to the Ambassador, reporting to, and corresponding
with, each as the occasion requires.
The Foreign Office have asked us for our
views, and we should naturally wish to have your
we answer m
comments before replying to the Foreign Office.
You may, of course, prefer to defer consideration
until you return to Hong Kong, in which case, we
will arrange for a suitable despatch on the subject
to be sent to Hong Kong, to reach there as soon as
possible after your arrival.
Perhaps I may say that we entirely agree
that something should be done to ensure that officers
of the Hong Kong Service are in a position to
acquaint themselves fully with the "Chinese scene"
on their immediate borders and as far as possible
belka
them thing
before beyond, and are thus able to take external Chinese
factors into full account, as necessary, in their
daily work. Whether this can be achieved, either
wholly or in part, by some sort of external affairs
organisation within the Hong Kong Service, either
on the lines suggested by Mr. Keswick, or on those
one of the ponics an
suggested by the Foreign Office, is a matter which
welcored your opinions
we would certainly have to be considered in Hong Kong
in the first place. One possibility would be to try
to find an officer with the same breadth of outlook
and familiarity with Chinese as Colonel Purcell of
the Malay Service. If such an officer can be found
either within or without the Hong Kong Service, for
the
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