TNAG-0739-FCO40-943-Employment-of-Hong-Kong-civil-servants-in-Hong-Kong-and-Gene-1980 — Page 30

STAFF IN CONFIDENCE

letter

Sir Murray MacLehose GBE KCMG KCVO HONG KONG

Chief Clerk

EMPLOYMENT OF HONG KONG CIVIL SERVANTS IN HONG KONG AND GENERAL DEPARTMENT

1. Thank you for your letter of 8 May setting out your suggestion that we might place someone from Hong Kong in Hong Kong and General Department.

2. I have discussed this proposal with the other people concerned here and we certainly see merit in the idea. However, we think it would be impossible to fit Peter Williams into such a slot: he is much too senior. What is needed is someone in the Third Room of the Department who could not only provide the direct first-hand experience of Hong Kong that they at present lack but would also be able to gain experience of Whitehall that would stand him in good stead after he feturns to Hong Kong. The ideal candidate would be a promising Administrative Officer with perhaps 5 or 6 years experience in Hong Kong Government. If you would like to suggest a candidate who fits this description, we shall see if he can be fitted in. I suggest that he should come to us under the terms recently agreed for reciprocal secondments.

3. There appears also to be some misunderstanding of Peter Williams position with regard to other dependent territories' jobs. He was considered last year for the Governorships of both the Gilberts and the Turks and Caicos but in the event the DTSAB preferred other candidates for both vacancies. He remains on our books as somebody who might be considered for future vacancies. However, as John Stewart told him in a letter of 9 December last year, there is not much on the horizon for the next year or so. Certainly, we do not expect there to be a vacancy in the Cayman Islands until at least 1980.

STAFF IN CONFIDENCE

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