TNAG-0694-FCO40-844-Inspection-of-Hong-Kong-Department-1977 — Page 24

CONFIDENTIAL/ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE

16. Mrs Johnson is responsible for the management of the large Aid and Technical Assistance programme for the Seychelles. She also handles any Seychelles economic work. Mrs Birch has a general responsibility under her for all aspects of Aid to the Seychelles and Hong Kong. The principles governing the pre- and post-independence aid programme are already fixed. The East African Development Division administers the programme and can authorise new schemes up to £600,000. The Aid desk officers have not, therefore, the same degree of responsibility as their opposite numbers in PDTD and are able to supervise the programme with only minimal reference to the Assistant and Head of department. New schemes in excess of £600,000 have, however, to be submitted for approval through the Head of department to the responsible Deputy Under-Secretary in the ODM.

Workload

17. Mr Major clearly has a full job which he has found considerably more demanding than a previous (DS 7) FCO post as desk officer for Canada. The strategic position of the Seychelles and the Indian Ocean Territory has lent a considerable importance to the pre-independence negotiations. Mr Major took part in the tough tripartite negotiations for the return of the three Seychelles islands. Stories about the post- resettlement conditions of the Diego Garcia islanders last year provoked much parliamentary protest and enquiry; the section dealt with 38 PQs and 22 MPs' Letters on this subject between 22 October 1974 and 12 November 1975. Mr Hinton expects that the processing of the Independence Orders will give him a full job until 9 June at least. Following independence he will be transferred to the new High Commission in Victoria. Mr Horne expects to have an ongoing job until independence and will then be posted.

18.

The experience of Miss Carpenter, who has been desk officer in SWPD for Fiji since it became independent, suggests that Mr Major will in the immediate post-independence period have to provide a lot of assistance both to the new High Commission in Victoria and also to the newly set up Seychelles High Commission in London. He will also, following the return of the two Seychelles aid desk officers to the ODM, become rather more directly concerned with progress of the large aid programme for the Seychelles. We therefore expect him to have a full DS 6 workload, particularly if he is responsible also for the administratim of Diego Garcia. This should, however, be reviewed if, as we expect, East African department is inspected next year.

19.

We made no serious attempt to assess the workload of Mrs Johnson and Mrs Birch since it is expected that they and all the Seychelles aid work will return to the ODM with Seychelles

/independence

6.

CONFIDENTIAL/ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE