TNAG-0187-FCO40-223-Personal-reports-from-the-Governor-1969 — Page 13

No Stewart,

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Mr. Carter

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HKK 13/17.

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Please see Mr. Gaminara's minute below. have a few ideas to add to those he has included.

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2.

I was interested to see in his Budget speech that the Governor had included mention of the improvement of the Public Assistance programme. struck me that however the proposals were hedged about by reference to the difficulties, the need to look further into the matter, the fact that this was the Governor's own idea, etc., they would in the future be taken as a political commitment. I would not presume to say that this was a bad thing. With the Colony's finances as healthy as they are I do not foresee that they will not, for example, be able to afford the Public Assistance scheme. I only wish to comment on the fact that it now seems a certainty that improvements on the present scheme will have to be introduced before too long.

3.

I see that the Governor is still not decided on asking for a UK expert to help with setting up the new scheme. We have not, therefore, made even preliminary approaches to ODM. In Sir Arthur Galsworthy's reply, it might be worthwhile asking the Governor to give us as long notice as possible if and when he decides that he wants a man.

It may not be easy to recruit.

4.

You know already of course about the organisa- tion and staffing problems of the Medical and Education departments. I have one general observation which I have not yet fully thought through. That is that we are going to encounter increasing difficulty over recruiting suitable officers for the Hong Kong Public Service, perhaps particularly in the senior professional posts. One possible solution might be the greater use of technical assistance which is normally the most suitable vehicle for the appointment for contract periods of such people. The principal différencé of course between the technical assistance officer and a Public Service officer is that the former is in the employment of the UK Government and seconded only to the Government he serves. When technical assistance is used for a cadre post within the Public Service the normal rule is for the Government concerned to pay their rate for the job while HMG (ODM) pays a supplementary allowance to bring the emoluments up to the required level to get a man from the UK.

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This may be a solution for Hong Kong's

difficulties. But there would be the problem

encountered in ex-Colonial, now independent,

territories, of the uncomfortable contrast between

technical assistance and local Public Service rates of pay: the former are much more attractive and discontent is the result.

6.

The paragraph about primary school fees is interesting: a political hot potato in this country. There might well be political advantage in being able to argue that there were no school fees but only registration fees, but on the other hand this artificial position could be hard to defend against

bit of comment partiamentary Questions of the sort we get from time

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16.4.69.

to

10 April, 1969

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P.TO.

(H. H. Stewart) Hong Kong Department