TNAG-0070-FCO40-106-Disturbances-in-Hong-Kong-propaganda-1968 — Page 50

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G.F. 323

CONFIDENTIAL

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11.

I support the need for a senior administrative officer, of the

calibre of Mr. Jordan, to be seconded to I.S.D. to provide effective

departmental stimulus and liaison, but his interests should extend to

my whole department and to the entire arena of government information

and broadcasting initiative.

12.

I see considerable disadvantage in breaking up the existing

Information Services departmental structure into a number of sub-units under the administrative control of the Secretariat. The principal staff of an Information Department is of necessity a highly-specialised, professional team and the ability to utilise these staff talents to

the best advantage of Government's image could be seriously hampered by an administrative machine which is not attuned to their special needs. These needs can better be met by an independent administration rather

than one which is a rigid section of a Colonial Secretariat administration.

13. If it were practical to decentralise information services without a large supporting production and distribution machine then it might

be possible to run an Information Service as a segment of the Colonial Secretariat on the lines of the General Clerical Service, whereby officers are sent to departments and absorbed into various departmental adminis- trations without the need for a central, professional control,

14. In the case of an Information Service not only are central servicos essential at the outset, but they must inevitably extend to keep pace with the growth of departmental information activity. I believe that professional departmental information officers and their staffs should

become part of the departments to which they are attached and they should be responsible to the Head of that department. Professional staff should be recruited initially to the Information Services Department who would second them to the departments concerned where they would join the administrative staff of that department to make up the information team.

This would provide promotion opportunities for the specialist staff involved in the information programme and would enable outstanding officers to be moved to more deserving departments. It would also enable departments, who find they have an officer who fits uncomfortably into their particular establishment, to seek a suitable replacement. Such a system would also provide for flexibility in times of intense departmental activity whereby a mobile unit could be sent from the central unit to support the departmental team.

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15. It is true that General Orders are, under present conditions, too restrictive although at one time they were appropriate but they have been administered in recent years with common sense and, on my

CONFIDENTIAL