TNAG-0725-FCO40-928-Constitutional-provisions-for-the-succession-of-Governors-in-1978 — Page 47

Pers

Personal

Confidentic

18

T Russell Esq CBE Government House GRAND CAYMAN

AKG 400/1

пка

RECEIVED IN =

- 7 AUG 1978

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

PA

2. 51

No

233-5381

1 August 1978

KOKO KY Action Taken

See (36

1018

S

12 Ax it

1974

DORMANT COMMILLIONS

1. You will have seen a cony of John tewart's letter of 26 April to a limited number of Officers Administering Governments, which was triggered off by your letter to him of 20 harch (reference A/2/8/038).

In

2. Most of the re lies to that letter have now been received. nearly every case, there are good reasons why the contents of the existing dormant commissions should not be published in advance of their use. There is general agreement, however, that there is now no reason why the security grading should be so high. ir Alec Louglas-Home's D spatch 1/6 of 10 January 1974 may therefore now be removed from the Personal series and declassified. Eut we should still prefer that it should not be published in the local gazette, at least until it is invoked.

3.

That despatch, however, is now out of date and we should issue a new one nominating the appropriate office holders in the light of the changes that have taken place since 1974. We should also like to amend the despatch to make it quite clear whether the nomination includes an acting office holder, should the substantive holder be absent at the crucial moment. This could be done by nominating "the person for the time being holding the office of ...". If we did this, it might be sufficient to nomi te just one office holder, rather than two as at present. We should be grateful for your advice on this point, and on the appropriate person (or persons) to nominate. As soon as we receive your advice, we shall arrange for the new despatch to issue.

WE Quantrill

Hong Kong & General Dept