TNAG-0592-FCO40-725-Inspection-of-Hong-Kong-and-Indian-Ocean-Department-1976 — Page 22

Mr Barratt LAND M 101]

RESTRICTED

JA

HONG KONG DEPARTMENT:

1.

ACCOMMODATION

Mr Morgan, the lome Inspector, in his report of 28 May on the inspection of what was then iKIOD made a number of observations and recommendations concerning the accommodation available in the Department. I should like to take up the question of accommodation for the Department's secretariat staff.

2.

As ir Morgan noted at the time of his inspection, the lead of Department's PA and the two £2s share a room (K 243, with two FLD shorthand typists (the lead of Fiù's in sits in K 257) They complained of noise. (art II, paragraph 29 of Mr Morgan's report refers - a copy of which should be avaoiable in ASD.) Mr Morgan recommended that when accommodation was reallocated at the West end of the second floor of the King Charles street Building separate rooms should, if possible, be provided for the Department's and FD's secretariat staff (Part I, paragraph 18 of his report). In speaking of a reallocation of accommodation, I think Mir organ had in mind his recommendation that the non-Gibraltar half of GGD should be merged with HKD (assuming a merger of the Gibraltar work with SD, which he had already recommended) and that this would necessarily result in some accommodation changes.

Implementation of Mr Morgan's recommendations concerning the future of GGD has been delayed.

3. I am not sure whether it is going to be possible to make any accommodation changes until the future of GGD and thus that of AND is settled. At the same time, the HKD secretaries have represented to me that their accommodation remains as unsatisfactory as when Mr Morgan reported. His description of its being "too arowded and noisy" is more apt now that another of the secretaries in room K 243, making three out of five, uses an electric typewriter. I am afraid that do not have any ready solution to offer to this problem. The rooms previously occupied by the Seychelles Independence Unit, which used to form part of the Department, namely, K 311 and 312, have remained unoccupied but it would not be satisfactory for the work of the Department if HKD's secretaries were to be rehoused on the third floor. Perhaps it might be easier to think in terms of finding alternative accommodation for the FD secretaries since there are two of them compared to likD's three. In any event, perhaps you would consider whether anything could be done.

14 September 1976

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النداء

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DF Milton

Hong Kong Department

247

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Mr Jasper GGD

RESTI

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