ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE
Chief Clerk
Сс
Mr Larmour
Mr Morgan
Mr Male
Mr Stanley
Mr O'Keeffe
Lg
GIBRALTAR AND GENERAL DEPARTMENT
1. I have seen Mr Morgan's minute to you of 18 March and his recommendations about the future of this department.
2. In general I think that the remaining dependent territories should at the right time become the responsibility of the appropriate geographical department as their future will more and more be bound up with that of adjacent territories,Commonwealth or Foreign. I am not, of course, advocating a sudden overall shift, but only a gradual one in the light of local circumstances.
3. It seems to me logical that all administrative and staffing matters should be integrated in one part of the office and I hope that this can be achieved in due course, but I can see that this will take time and presents some problems.
4.
I do not agree with the proposal that Hong Kong should assume responsibility for its own recruitment. This raises a fundamental question about our continuing responsibilities for Hong Kong. Moreover we are concerned about the attitude of mind of some of the senior staff in Hong Kong and this is going to become increasingly important as we develop and implement the integrated policy we are working on for Hong Kong (see paragraph 5 below).
5. The planning paper on Hong Kong prepared for the Secretary of State's proposed visit in April proposes an increasingly important role for Hong Kong department and I do not think that if this policy is accepted it will be wise to ask Hong Kong department also to cover the general" work of Gibraltar and General Department. I agree with Mr Morgan that the logical home for this section would be Commonwealth Coordination Department. Is it really true that preparation for the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference in 1977 is a full time job for a department?
23 March 1976
Honor Cortage.
HAH Cortazzi
ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE
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