CONFIDENTIAL
STAFF IN CONFIDENCE
BRIEF F
IW 65
DS SECONDMENTS TO HONG KONG
1.
When the present Governor of Hong Kong took office in 1971
he soon came to the conclusion that there were serious deficiencies
in the quality of the senior members of the Hong Kong Civil Service. In order to strengthen that Service he arranged that a number of Diplomatic Service officers be seconded to Hong Kong. This experiment was not a success, in part due to the fact that those DS officers willing to serve in Hong Kong and whom personnel departments were willing to release were not, on the whole, of a very high quality themselves. This, coupled with the resentment and obstruction presented to them by the Hong Kong Civil Service, resulted in disillusion on the part of the Governor and an effective dying away of the secondments programme.
2. In 1976 it was again clear that from the poor quality of the advice that was being given to the Governor on various problems all was not well in the Hong Kong Civil Service. Accordingly, the Minister of State proposed to the Governor that a Grade 4 Diplomatic Service officer be posted to some central position in the Hong Kong Government in order to improve the quality of advice given to the Governor and, in particular, advice about the British
political scene. This proposal too fell by the wayside.
3. One of the main problems in Hong Kong is that their senior
Civil Servants have, for the most part, spent all their service
or all their recent service in Hong Kong. Therefore, for periods
of up to 25 years they have been cut off from the main stream of
British and European thinking in the political, social and
industrial relations fields. Recent developments in Hong Kong, not only within the Police but also within the Civil Service Branch
and others, have made it clear that there is a case for reorganizing
the machinery to provide the Governor with better advice. One
answer which the Governor during my recent visit appeared to think might be feasible would be to provide him with a chef de cabinet
from the Diplomatic Service and I recommend that the Minister of
State should discuss this with the Governor on 22 November.
CONFIDENTIAL
STAFF IN CONFIDENCE
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