TNAG-0170-FCO40-206-British-Trade-Commissioner-1969 — Page 176

CONFIDENTIAL

Status of the British Trade Commission

Hong Kong

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The British Trade Commission in Hong Kong is neither an independ-

ent Mission whose Head is accredited to a foreign government, nor a subordinate post responsible to a larger Mission. It is a small post staffed by the Diplomatic Service fulfilling a specialist function inside a Crown Colony. The only posts at all similar are in such different territories (the Bahamas and Tonga) that there are no helpful comparisons to guide us on the post's functions but it is clear that there are a number of anomalies in the present set-up. purpose of this paper is to examine the present situation and to explore in a tentative fashion future developments.

2.

The

It seems clear that the origins of this post stem from the post- war period when Export Services Branch of the Board of Trade thought it necessary to have an office in Hong Kong. I think that the officers | in that Export Services Branch out-station were recruited specially since they did not apparently form part of the Trade Commissioner Service. When the recommendations of the Plowden Commission were implemented and the Board of Trade's overseas responsibilities were amalgamated with the Foreign and Commonwealth Relations Services it was agreed between the Board of Trade and the Foreign Office and Commonwealth Relations Office that responsibility for the Trade Commission should pass to the combined Diplomatic Service. To this end, career Diplomatic Service officers were sent to the Post which, from the Personnel Department point of view, is now staffed and administered in the same way as any other overseas Mission.

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3. Since 1965, the Trade Commission has consisted of 4 U.K. based officers, a Principal British Trade Commissioner (recently upgraded to Grade 4), a Grade 6 British Trade Commissioner, a Grade 7E Assistant Trade Commissioner and a Grade 9 Administration officer.

This establishment has, however, been enlarged in the last month or so by the addition of a Grade 6 Information Officer. The main

CONFIDENTIAL

/functions