TNAG-0923-FCO40-1141-Secondments-from-Diplomatic-Service-and-Home-Civil-Service-t-1980 — Page 27

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J M Rowlands Esq CBE

Secretary for the Civil Service

Government Secretariat

HONG KONG

Your reference

Our reference

HKK 400/2

Date

12 November 1980

Dear Martin

HONG KONG SPECIALIST POSTS IN HM MISSIONS OVERSEAS

1. Your telegram No 1447 declined our offer to nominate DS officers for the new post of First Secretary (Hong Kong Affairs) in UKMIS Geneva,

2. We were rather disappointed about this since we did in fact have a number of officers whose experience might well have been relevant to this particular job. By way of illustration, I enclose some brief career descriptions of the candidates whom we had in mind. 3. We understand your wish to see Hong Kong officers postedto HM Missions in order to assist with their career development by giving them overseas experience. However, I suggest that this could usefully be tempered with a proportion of the posts being filled by officers who have diplomatic experience as well as first-hand know- ledge of the territory. Given this, we were rather surprised at the appointment of Miss Bywater to a new First Secretary slot in Brussels earlier this year, since, despite her evident knowledge of Community matters, she appeared neither to have the necessary professional background nor experience of Hong Kong. The Diplomatic Service has many officers who know the Brussels machinery thoroughly and we would have welcomed being asked to help over filling this post.

4.

I would be grateful if we could work out a system whereby all posts, whether additional or existing, are looked at together by you and us in order to identify the most suitable candidate, whether he be a Hong Kong officer or a DS officer with the right qualifications. I have in mind in particular Peter Tsao's letter of 30 July which stated that the Advisory Committee on Diversification had recommended an increase in the number of DTIC offices overseas. We fully under- stand and support the reasoning behind this recommendation.

However,

I know that you appreciate that pressure on us here to reduce staffing levels in our Missions overseas is bound to be taken into account when the expansion of posts representing Hong Kong interests takes place.. We have already seen from the correspondence on Peter Wise's accreditation in Europe that some Heads of Post find it difficult to reconcile their instructions to cut down overall with the addition of a Hong Kong element to their staffs. In these circum- stances, the fact that we have only one DS officer in a Hong Kong overseas slot (Crowson in Washington) is bound to stand out.

I hope

/you

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