TNAG-1874-FCO40-2665-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-other-British-Dependent-Terr-1989 — Page 97

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Mr Gorham,

Mh. January

WIAD

FROM: PR FEARN

DATE: 8 February 1989

Please speck idc.

ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR'S POSTS

1. At the Governors' Conference in Barbados, I invited Mr Scott to let me know in writing his views on the nature of the Governor's job, and on our present proposals for the Administration of Governors' posts. He subsequently gave me the attached paper which I have only just managed to read on my return.

2. Mr Scott's comments are interesting and often much to the point. My own comments are as follows:

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

3.

the idea of preparing a profile/analysis on the role of the Governor could be useful both as background for visitors/Inspectors and for the Dependent Territories Selection Board. Mr Scott is no doubt right in saying that (apart from and even in the responsible regional departments) there is little understanding in the FCO of what a Governor does and a tendency to draw too facile an equation with normal DS tasks. Mr Scott on the other hand may be exaggerating the differences in the skills required. Is this something which we might invite Mr Wallace to try his hand at?

however well-based Mr Scott's misgivings may be on the suitability of a DS background, he fails, I think, to grasp the point that it is not because we necessarily believe that DS officers can do the job better but because alternative sources are drying up: and we thus have little option. We do, I understand, look for candidates from eg the Hong Kong Civil Service and ex-Attornies General/Financial Secretaries;

I suspect he is right on the question of age: that is Governors much below the age of 50 could be a problem in local conditions;

on Senior Grade and honours, Governors' posts have to be considered against their relative importance to HMG's interests and Treasury ceilings on grades;

we accept the problems likely to be caused by imposing salaries corresponding to DS gradings. Is the idea of computing pensions on DS salary levels a starter?

•

I should like to send an acknowledgement to Mr Scott fairly soon. Can I leave it to you to decide whether these papers should be copied to POD or elsewhere in the Administration.

P R Fearn

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