TNAG-0725-FCO40-928-Constitutional-provisions-for-the-succession-of-Governors-in-1978 — Page 11

PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL

THE FOLLOWING REFERENCE NUMBER

SHOULD BE QUOTED IN ANY REPLY

NO

/2/088

HKG.400/1

18 SEP 1978

DESK OFAIL.

INDEX

PA

No

E

WE Quantrill Esq

SEAS

CAYMAN ISLANDS clion Take:

све

sei & hoclytbe

Hong Kong and General Department

FCO

Dear Quantrill,

18

1.

X

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR,

36

GRAND CAYMAN

CAYMAN ISLANDS

23 August

See (37)

.197...............

-sucly X is wrong: when the Governor knows he is going to be away, it is for him to nominate his stand in the dormant commission is for use when the Governor is unable to do this because of unexpected developments like dans death.

Please discuss with the Legal Adviser and douft an appropriate

перву

Thank you for your letter of 1st August 1978 about Dormant Commissions.

2.

121879

I am glad that no need is seen to preserve a security grading. I note however that the commissions "should not be published in advance of their use" and that "it should not be published in the local gazette at least until it is invoked". It may not be realised that the Dormant Commission is invoked three or four times a year if the Governor goes overseas for a conference or leave, and that in itself it constitutes the authority for the appointment of an acting Governor. If the validity of the appointment were queried during an acting appointment

it would be very difficult if not impossible to withold publication of the authority.

3.

In local terms the existing Dormant Commission which designates the Chief Secretary (a Caymanian) or if he is, or becomes, unable to assume and perform the functions of the office of Governor, the Financial Secretary (also a Caymanian) is accepted by the community as a logical and well-understood order of succession. The Financial Secretary has already acted as Governor when the acting Governor, Mr Foster, during my vacation leave, was invited to the British Virgin Islands to meet Her Majesty The Queen. Publication in the Gazette of the new Dormart Commission, when first used, or upon issue, would do no more than formalise existing practice, and provide statutory authority for any subsequent appointment. If it becomes necessary to change it, for example if the Financial Portfolio were taken over by a politician on the Financial Secretary's retirement, it would cause no embarrassment to replace the Financial Secretary say, by the Attorney General who would be the natural successor.

4.

I realise however that you may wish conformity in all dependencies and will naturally accept whatever procedure you lay down.

5.

The proposal to nominate "the person for the time being holding the office of Chief Secretary" is less satisfactory than the existing wording. The senior of the Principal Secretaries, now Mr H McCoy acts as Chief Secretary when the latter is absent on leave or from the territory. He is junior to, and less experienced than the Financial Secretary who continues to discharge the duties of his office for reasons of continuity and public interest. While this is acceptable when the Governor is at post (and can act as longstop for the acting Chief Secretary in the temporary discharge of his duties) I should wish the Financial Secretary to act as Governor if the latter were unable to discharge the functions of his office, and there were an acting Chief Secretary at post. He is the senior official member of the Executive Council.

6.

I have considered whether the Chief Justice, Sir John Summerfield, CBE or the Attorney General, Mr David Barwick CBE QC should replace the Financial Secretary as the second fall-back position. But as the Financial Secretary has acted in the post as Governor, and is competent to do so during an interregnum I should not recommend this. Whereas Chief Justices in the 1950s sometimes succeeded the Governor

/during