TNAG-0694-FCO40-844-Inspection-of-Hong-Kong-Department-1977 — Page 42

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Mr Unwin (PPD)

ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE

HKGD: POSSIBLE UPGRADING OF THE ASSISTANT'S POST TO 5'S'

The

1. Mr Morgan recommended in the report of his inspection of what was then Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department, that the possibility of upgrading the Assistant's post to 5oŠ' should be reviewed in six months' time (Part II, recommendation no. 5 in Mr Morgan's report, dated 28 May 1976). This recommendation, together with others made by Mr Morgan, was subsequently approved (Mr Farrar's minute of 16 June 1976 to Mr O'Keeffe).

2. It emerges from Mr Morgan's report that he put forward his recommendation regarding the Assistant's post on two assumptions. The first was that the more "interventionist" policy towards Hong Kong advocated in a Planning Paper then under consideration would increase the responsibilities of Hong Kong Department (as it became when responsibility for the Seychelles and the BIOT was transferred to EAD at the beginning of July 1976) and would call for additional staffing. Planning Paper was approved by Ministers at the end of July 1976 and has certainly resulted in an increase in the amount of work done on Hong Kong. This has manifested itself, for example, in the establishment of a Standing Committee of officials, which meets quarterly to monitor the implementation of the Planning Paper and reports to Lord Goronwy-Roberts and by much closer contacts between the FCO and the Hong Kong Government, both by means of correspondence and visits by officials in both directions. I have visited Hong Kong twice, for a fortnight each time, since the Planning Paper was approved and Mr Murray, the supervising Under-Secretary, and one of the desk officers in my department have also been to Hong Kong in the past six months. It is also now a well-established practice that Hong Kong Government officials on leave and/or other business This increase in the in this country call on the department. work-load on Hong Kong's affairs has been accompanied by an

For example, increase in Parliamentary interest in the Colony. the department handled 151 PQs on Hong Kong in 1976, which, according to the Parliamentary Unit, represented approximately 1/12th of the total number of PQs addressed to the FCO last year. We have dealt with 76 so far this year. After managing (with difficulty for some months with the existing staff, the department has recently had to be reinforced by the appointment of a Grade 9 officer, thus bringing the complement of desk officers dealing with Hong Kong to three.

3. The other assumption on which Mr Morgan put forward his recommendation concerning the Assistant's post was that Hong Kong Department would absorb the General and Administrative, Judicial and Legal Staffing Sections of G & GD once the Gibraltar Section of G & GD was transferred to SED. In the event, as you well know, it has taken the best part of a year to give effect to Mr Morgan's recommendations regarding the break-up

ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE