TNAG-0199-FCO40-235-City-district-officer-scheme-1969 — Page 5

CONFIDENTIAL

3. A large percentage of this is grossly unfair. I argued against it by explaining the high priority placed on the proper staffing of the D.T.A.D. and the amount of timo given personally by the Zecretary Cary of State to dependent territory affairs. I hope too that I pánaged to persuade some of the critics that a diplomatic officer/was a "general purpose animal" and that their nostalgia for the Colonial office gave that Department more credit than it really deserved. also spoke frankly to liong Kong officials about their failure to put their best case forward in communication.

I

4. I understand that the Governor proposes during his present leave to raise with us certain practical proposals to better the position e.. by a regular exchange of staff between the office and the long Kong Administration (not only on the old Colonial Office "beachcomber" model but also by temporary secondments to the ilong Kong Administration · outside the Political Adviser's Office) and by an agreement on long Song's external comerofal relations that, in the event of a clash between Hong Kong and the U.K.'s economic departments, the Secretary of State should, subject to the right of his colleagues to raise the matter in Cabinet, have the final word.

Cab

5. Eut the problem will remain with us for some time and require careful handling if we are not to see a breakdown of the delicate web of confidence on which the running of Hong Kong depends. We ought to

giye top priority to restoring the breakdown in communication between us and Hong Kong.

2th the

6. To close on a happier note. 1 was most impiu. working of the City District Officer scheme. I dined privately with about a dozen of the young Chinese administrative officers running the scheme and was struck by their high esprit de corps. Their weekly reports on "Town Talk" reflect what the man in the street is saying of Government without regard to any supposed susceptibilities on the part of their superiors in Government or the Unofficial Members of Executive and Legislative Councils to whom the reports are made available. The official and unofficial recipients of the reports also subject them to close and constructive scrutiny. I am much less apprehensive than before my visit about the gap between the "Establishment" and the people in Hong Kong. The reports seem indeed to have met a psychological need on the part of the former.

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FIDENTIAL