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The Chief Clerk FCO
War Anda.
CONFIDENTIAL
MANAGEMENT IN CONFIDENCE
NEW CONSULATE GENERAL IN HONG KONG
BRITISH TRADE COMMISSION
HONG KONG.
9 July 1992
1. The tone of FCO telno 127 convinces me there is an urgent need for management of this project at the Whitehall end. I sympathise with the predicament you and Christopher Hum are in, both having inherited this dossier and under pressure to take quick decisions. I am equally convinced that the more hurried the decisions the more we shall have to regret and, at public expense, remedy.
2. I am under greater pressure than you. Your expectation that I can coordinate a considered response on what is possibly the most complex building project in which the DS is engaged - in 48 hours and with no MO in town and a young, largely untrained LE Secretary, is evidence that my meeting with Christopher was un- productive.
3,
The telegram states "A part of our problem is that you have never set out on paper the full range of your concerns". I gave him 16 pages 24 hours before our meeting in order to focus our discussion (and a set to Tony Galsworthy). The result, a hurried visit by an unbriefed architect who gave us one and a half hours to review the project was further evidence that this project is being mis-managed. The FCO asked the JLG to give a view: they start from scratch and had no time even to look at the plans or papers. Two months exposure to this project convinces me there
need to pull things together in London and in Hong Kong.
is
4. At the end of my briefing tour in London Christopher Hum's predecessor invited me in for a talk about my responsibilities towards the new Consulate General. The Secretary of State highlighted it as my major responsibility. I have dedicated a
MANAGEMENT IN CONFIDENCE
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