TNAG-0594-FCO40-740-Staffing-in-the-Dependent-Territories-in-the-1980s-1977 — Page 34

PERSONAL AND STAFF IN CONFIDENCE

STAFF IN CONFIDENCE

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P C Duff Esq

Her Majesty's Commissioner

ANGUILLA

26 August 1977

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West Indian and Atlantic Department Foreign and Commonwealth Office London

Dear Patuck,..

SW1A 2AH

STAFFING IN DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

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I am sorry not to have replied sooner to your letter of 13 June asking for comments about Staffing the Dependent Territories in the 1980s. My comments which follow relate primarily to Anguilla, but they may have a wider application to at least some of the other small poor territories which make up the majority of the 7-10 residual ones.

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I do not altogether agree with the remark in paragraph 8 of the paper that the job of a Colonial Governor nowadays increasingly requires the skills that are the normal equipment of a diplomat. Nor do I agree entirely that the previous service of District Officers far removed from the operations of central government are not greatly relevant to present-day requirements. These statements are partly but not entirely true about small territories, at least in my experience. In Anguilla, the Governor (Commissioner) is inextricably concerned with

He is a great deal of fine detail in all matters, great or small. closely involved with internal political affairs and personalities and he has to have an intimate understanding of both these, as they affect the government and society which he serves and of which he is himself an active and influential part. He is also concerned with the initiation and formulation of policy and with its subsequent detailed execution, with the administration and management of virtually the whole range of Government business, staff management, financial management, office manage- ment, internal security, economic development, and so on. He must also deal with practical matters of law enforcement, and have a clear understanding of legislation, as well as all stages of the legislative process itself. These matters are all akin to what District Officers used to do in their districts, and experience gained in that respect is still surprisingly useful. Because of the very small scale of the territory, even minor matters assume considerable importance and delicacy. For example, I nearly had a total political breakdown of government here on one occasion over the date of the changeover of the headmaster of the secondary school in a larger country this would be akin to a major crisis affecting the continuance of all the country's universities. District-officer-like responsibilities require the same kind of skills which are needed by a lead of Chancery in an Embassy, so a DS Officer with the right qualities should be capable of learning how to do them. But skill is different from experience, and the context in which the job is done in a dependent territory is so very different from that of a

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