TNAG-1874-FCO40-2665-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-other-British-Dependent-Terr-1989 — Page 106

CONFIDENTIAL

POINTS FOR GOVERNOR-DESIGNATE

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I thought this might be useful and amusing after four months in office in Cayman, because very few people,

if any,

in the FCO

have much idea how different a Governor's job is from the usual

FCO work and what problems, pitfalls, etc, may await him.

The first and obvious point is that a Governor is part of the

Government, not a diplomat reporting to a home government; he is

therefore an actor rather than an observer in the situation. The

Governor is the man on the spot, as the FCO wisely recognises, and

his judgement about what to sau and to do and how to move the

levers of power, or cause them to be moved by the local government,

has to be depended upon. You could not in the old days run a

colony from Westminster, and nowadays you certainly cannot even

except of course post crisis.

consider doing so

-

Governors seem to get no handover, although I was fortunate

in that my predecessor and I worked together in two other

territories for seven years and he entertained us first for a

social visit some eighteen months before I took up office (before

I had actually considered it) and subsequently a working Easter

weekend before our official arrival. This was very helpful.

The UK Government, through the

through the Governor, is responsible for

foreign affairs, internal security and the Civil Service; but neither the UK Government nor the Governor have the real sanction of financial control, because Cayman is welloff not grant aided. The UKG has no say in the Cayman budget, and only very generally in its loans policy and borrowing. UKG policy in regard to the Dependent Territories is to

to allow

allow constitutional development and when it is asked for, but not actively to encourage it.

as

The Cayman Constitution provides an elected majority (12 out of 15) in the Legislative Assembly, and in the Executive Council (4 out 7). There is effectively, except for the reserved subjects, internal self-government. The Governor is expected to "manage" Executive Council (which has collective responsibility) and the Legislative Assembly (as President). This may look like a "colonial" constitution, but there is a vast difference between appointing all or most of the Members of Assembly and Council (eg Hong Kong), and having them elected upon you.

In the absence of politics in the Western or ideological sense

in Cayman, and in the present absence of a formal

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