In de Conry veloxd
R. please copy
to
1/48
HKID! (paras) SEMAD (ponas) and
AR Clark Esq
Lapytaken for Hickmanos.
RG1148
HKIOD (for para 5)
Маслони пад
Товая рать
BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION
EESO (pana 4).
со
1418
South West Pacific Department
F CO
Dear Alam
CANBERRA The PA
9 August 1974 RD
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO.3
12 AUG 1974
FWA2/37
5.
15/8
3
para 2 cc. FW125/7.
NICC14/5
THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND THE PRESS
1. The image of the Department of Foreign Affairs has taken a considerable drubbing from the press in the last few weeks. A number of events have lead to this state of affairs, and although none of them by themselves merited much attention, together they": have led to a decline in the image of the Department which Renouf has sedulously been trying to develop amongst the general public.
2. One of the more curious events has been Renouf's suggestion for a distinctive uniform for Australian diplomats overseas. Following Mr Grassby's pattern and his "Riverina Rig", the press have been quick to dub Renouf's proposal the "Renouf Rig". He even has had a First Secretary in the Department here modelling a variety of styles, and, from the accounts I have had from my DWA colleagues, pirouetting up and down the Secretary's room in front of some of the more senior officials in the Department.
It seems that Renouf's suggestion for the uniform has virtually no support from the officers in the Department, particularly as the cost of buying one would be at their own expense and would not be funded from official sources. Some unkind comments, which I am sure are apocryphal, suggest that Renouf's idea of a uniform would be an Australian slouch hat, a high-collared safari length jacket on Mao lines with wattle designe around the collar and cuffs; underneath a pair of shorts with long knee socks and heavy brogue walking shoes. All this of course would be in khaki and instead of a sword they would have a kangaroo tail. The Sydney Morning Herald in an editorial described Renouf's fancy dress as phoney, unnatural and thoroughly un-Australian. It acknowledges that an argument in favour of it, although an extremely dubious proposition, is that Australians now tend to be regarded as "pale imitations of the British or the Americans". The Sydney Morning Herald thought that Australian diplomats should stand out from envoys of other nations at official functions but not as a result of fancy dress but rather "because of their force of personality, their character and their intellect". The editorial finished on these words: "Our diplomats should be neither ugly Australians nor synthetic Australians."
3.
The charter of the two Qantas 707 jets to fly furnishings for the Australian Embassy and its staff houses and flats to Peking has also cast the DFA in a bad light, although they in fact were not directly responsible. According to the press the Overseas Property Bureau had found previous supplies of Hong Kong- built furniture unsatisfactory; they had therefore employed an Australian interior designer for the new Australian flats in Peking and had ordered Australian made carpets and furniture which were
/then
43
CONFIDENTIAL
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