Sir Robert Black, GCMG, OBE
FED/AG.143
CONFIDENTIAL
Page 340
29th July,
on his individual merit and not as a representative of a group. Poynton said that the idea seemed worth considering and that no doubt Lee would want to discuss it with you. Poynton thought that this was perhaps a matter where you might not want to make a change at the end of your tenure of office which would commit your successor and that you might prefer therefore to leave it to him. The Secretary of State did not express a view, but said that no doubt Lee would put his ideas before Trench.
These are, of course, the ideas to which you referred in the sixth paragraph of your letter of the 21st June, 1961, (about modifications in the composition of the Legislative and Urban Councils) and on which you expressed some valid criticisms. I am sure there is no harm in their being raised and considered again, even if their only value is to stir and sustain thinking among your Unofficials about the ways and means of improving the machinery of government. You will recall Mr Maudling's request that this matter should be kept under review (Martin's letter FED 36/400/01 of the 16th April, 1962.)
On the social side the visits have apparently gone down well. They are both of course very pleasant chaps to deal with. Lee received his C.B.E. at an investiture on the 24th July. Rodrigues, in a letter to me, described the social gatherings as "overwhelming. Most of the functions he attended were, of course, in connection with the Congress of Commonwealth Universities. the course of them, he and his wife were presented to The Queen and Prince Philip and to the Queen Mother.
In
(W. I. J. Wallace)
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