CO129-611-2 Liaison with British Embassy and consulates in China- appointment of political advisor 1-9-1945 - 20-10-1947 — Page 84

ET MON

Foreign Office,

35.

81

S.W.1.

17th March

1

arch

1947

$47

F 1666/376/G

(31)

Dear Lloyd.

Many thanks for your letter of 4th March about the proposed appointment of a Political Liaison Officer to Hong Kong.

As it happens we were just about to write to tell you that after further consultations with our Ambassador at Nanking, we have been able with some difficulty to find a Foreign Service Officer with China experience whom we can release for secondment to Hong Kong for about three years. He is C.B.B. Heathcote-Smith, who was born in 1912 and served in China from 1936 to 1945 except for one year which he spent in Persia. Since 1945 he has been employed in the Foreign Office. We look on him as intelligent, efficient and tactful and we are sure he will do well. He could be made available about June.

If you agree to Heathcote-Smith's appointment in principle, would you ask your establishment

people to get into touch with our Personnel Department about the detailed conditions of his secondment?

Sir Thomas Lloyd, K.C.M.G.,

Colonial Office.

sin