TNAG-0699-FCO40-850-Maintenance-of-Government-Houses-in-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 53

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Mrs Gregory

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Reference HKA 364/lice

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 57 10 AUG 1978

DESK OFFICER

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cc Miss Stoddart

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REGISTRY Action Taken

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GOVERNORS' ACCESSORIES

1. I minuted to you earlier this week with some preliminary ideas on how we might tackle the next stage in removing the financial responsibility for Governors' miscellaneous activities in their islands from local budgets to an FCO vote.

2. I have now had a chance to discuss this in ODM with Mr Tomlinson, Parliamentary Under Secretary, in very general terms who has said he would gladly look at any proposals which would remove the present embarrassment facing Governors who try to increase items in the local budget against the dis- approval of local Ministers. More significantly I talked to Donald Kirkness, the Principal Finance Officer and Ken Fry who in his recent destructive minute to us was merely reflecting what he understood were Mr Kirkness' views. Kirkness said that he was not prepared to have an explicit item put into the aid programme to cover maintenance of Government Houses etc but that he was perfectly content to see this sort of activity financed by us through increased grant-in-aid in those territories which were, not well enough off (like the Caymans, Hong Kong, Bermuda etc)

to do it themselves. I spoke at length about the objection to this and that, although the tab is picked up ultimately by the aid programme, it has to appear in the local estimates and people like Austin Bramble can say that every new washer on the Government House bath means one less cup of milk for a starving child. However, and this is the point, Mr Kirkness is perfectly willing to consider some kind of transfer of funds up to say £100,000 from some part of the aid programme into an FCO head of expenditure which would enable the existing item controlled by HKGD to buy Governors' plumes etc to be extended to do some of the other things which are important. This I think may be the key to the whole problem but what I have said should not be quoted at this stage, merely stored away as ammunition for our next round.

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PC Duff

West Indian and Atlantic Department

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3 August 1978

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