TNAG-0363-FCO40-409-Appointments-of-senior-officers-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 84

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Page 8 Friday, February 9, 1973 HONGKONG STA

Hongkong Standard

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER ESTABLISHED 1949

DAILY READERSHIP OVER 150,000

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Search for new blood

ONE DAY, perhaps, it will all be told. At the moment reasons behind the top-level reshuffling in the Government are enough to drive habitual pundits of the Hongkong scene to despair.

On Page 1 we learn today, for instance, that a senior official of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office will become our next Colonial Secretary, the Colony's second-highest government officer.

The names of two professional diplomats, it is reported, top the list of names now under close scrutiny at Whitehall. Both have worked in Peking and, for brief periods, in Hongkong. Both are, no doubt, highly professional and skilled administrators.

It is also clear that neither of these men havo had associations with the Colony of any wal consequence, Their previous tour here were relatively brief, and it would come as a surprise indeed if their commitments to Hongkong went beyond the knowledge that the chosen one would fly out to do the job to the best of his ability.

It would be expecting too much to hope that Hongkong would ever become a real home for any professional diplomat. It is far more likely that our new Colonial Secretary will come to the Colony somewhat of a stranger, serve out his tour of duty before returning home on retirement

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This would be perfectly understandable at a layman's level, if there was a dearth of top-level talent in our civil service.

There are at the moment, however, at least two men long considered eminently suitable candidates to

fill Colonial Secretary Sir Hugh Norman-Walker's shoes when he retires at the end of this year.

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The first is Information Secretary Jack Cater who, until late last month, was generally considered a certainty to fill the important slot. One of our most able and experienced administrators, Mr Cater came to the Colony at the end of World War 11 and is known to he committed to Hongkong on a permanent basis. "This is my home," he has often declared.

It came as a shock when it was announced that he had asked for "eurly retirement" and had accepted the general manager's post of the Hongkong Telephone Company. He will take 'up his new job early next year.

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