IN BRITAIN TODAY Diplomatic Changes Forecast

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31993, 21 May 1969, Page 8

IN BRITAIN TODAY Diplomatic Changes Forecast

(N.Z.P.A .-Heut er—^opnriQ r hf.' Cable News Digest) LONDON, May 19. A reorganisation of British representation overseas, involving a strengthening of diplomatic posts in Europe and Nprth America, and a' diminution of . staff in many other regions, perhaps in Commonwealth countries, is likely to be recommended to the .Government soon. The recommendation is widely believed to be coming in a report now being compiled on the functions and scale of British representation overseas. A draft of the report is said to be under examination in Whitehall. Members of the committee established to make the report are Sir Vai Duncan, chairman of the Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation; Sir Frank Roberts, a former British Ambassador in Bonn; and Mr Andrew Shonfield, an economist. Usually reliable sources in London say that ’ the report strongly favours a more hardbeaded approach to overseas representation: that greater emphasis should be placed on boosting strength in areas of greatest potential economic and trade gain, and less on maintaining what might be termed “prestigious” posts in countries whose ties with Britain have

become less since the breakup of the Empire and of military commitments abroad. E.E.C. INFLUENCE ’ Western Europe and the British bid to enter the Common Market are said to •have weighed heavily with the Committee, whose report apparently 1 ‘advocates that the foreign and Commonwealth Office should now begin assessing , manpower needs abroad on the basis that.>the United Kingdom will enter the Market. People with the qualifications necessary for posts within the European Community should be taken on soon, writes the N.Z.P.A.'s staff correspondent in London, Bruce Kohn. ,The report is unlikely to be published for several weeks, according to Whitehall sources. Its recommendations are unlikely to cause any surprise, although there may be some “fluttering” among former officials of the Commonwealth Office who feel that the Commonwealth relations sector of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is being rapidly relegated into an area of secondary importance. These officials believe that last year’s merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices was in itself a sign of declining British interest in Commonwealth nations. A move this year to run down the strength of diplomatic posts in Commonwealth countries would certainly be construed by them as confirmation of this view. The general view in Whitehall, however, is that changes along the lines the committee are likely to recommend are inevitable. To Europeanminded Foreign Office staff, who are in a majority, the report will be confirmation of the pro-market policies they have been pushing hard for several years. Ulster Move Some Ulster Opposition M.P.s are pressing the Northern Ireland Government to make public the findings of an investigation lasting four months into cases of alleged police brutality and bad conduct during the civil rights disturbances in Londonderry in January. The investigation, conducted by County, Inspector Henry Baillie, hebd of the crime branch of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, has just b'een completed, and an Opposition M.P., Mr Ivan Cooper, says he cannot see how it can fail to be damning. During their inquiries, County Inspector Baillie and the head constable and detective-sergeant who have been working with him have taken statements from more than 200 people in Bogside, the Roman Catholic area of Londonderry. POLICE CONCERNED The police are known to be concerned at the implications of possible findings in] the report, and have intimated their hope that it will not} contain personal censures. [ Some of them think that the recent amnesty! announced by the Prime Minister (Major Chichester-! Clark), for people convicted in connection with civil! rights disturbances, should' apply to them. It is understood that if the report is highly critical of them, some may resign in protest. In a speech in Belfast on Saturday, Major ChichesterClark defended the right of the police to carry arms. He said that calls for them to be disarmed were “unrepresentative.” Major Ronald Bunting, one of the main supporters of the extremist Protestant leader, the Rev. lan Paisley, has been invited to fight Mr! Harold Wilson’s seat of Huyton-with-Roby at the next General Election. After speaking at a Protestant rally in Glasgow on Saturday, Major Bunting confirmed that he had received the invitation in a telegram

from Loyalist Protestants in that constituency. Dilemma Of Doctors Roman Catholic doctors may stop practising in Britain if “mercy killing” is made legal. Dr Gerald Martin, of the Roman Catholic doctors’ guild, said at the guild’s yearly conference in Bristol: “The pressure for legalising voluntary euthanasia is causing us great concern. If it is successful, Roman Catholic doctors may find it impossible to practise medicine in this country.” A third of the country’s 22,000 general practitioners are estimated to be Roman Catholics. Call For New Tactics Lord Shepherd, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, believes that the South-East Asia Treaty Organisation must change its tactics to counter Communist expansion and subversion. Before he went to Bangkok this week for the S.E.A.T.O, council meeting. Lord Shepherd said in London in a radio broadcast to Thailand: “The Communist powers are increasingly aware that terrorism and military adventure cannot, in the long run, succeed, and that the battle must be fought in the hearts and minds of the people.

. “We consider S.E.A.T.O.'s task is now in the economic and development area as much as in the military field.” Lord Shepherd repeated that Britain’s military withdrawal from East of Suez in 1971 did not mean that Britain would “retire into a shell and pay only lip-ser-vice to the principles of the treaty.” New Lease Of Life The obsolete luxury liner Queen Elizabeth I may yet be cruising between Britain and Australia. The Cunard Line is having a fresh look at her future, a British businessman, Sir Howard Hickman, having formed a group which has offered more than £3m for her. Sir Howard Hickman wants Ito return the ship, now moored off Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to service under the British flag, to sail between' Britain and Australia to tap the booming Australian cruise market. An Old Etonian, Sir Howard Hickman is leading a group which comprises several influential City business interests. He was an aircraft engineer with de Havilland during the war, and he now owns a company producing fog-warning lights; but little is known of his other business interests.

Cunard will only admit publicly that it has received a number of offers for the ship. But it is now clear

,that its attempt to operate the Queen Elizabeth as a Florida conference centre, leased to the locally-formed Elizabeth Corporation controlled by Cunard itself, has become bogged down firmly in Florida mud. After announcing the sale of the Queen Elizabeth to three American businessmen a year ago for £3.2m Cunard decided last October to keep control of the ship and lease it to the Elizabeth Corporation. Cunard has now taken I over complete control of both ithe Elizabeth Corporation and the ship from the three Americans who made the original offer. Runaways’ Return Two runaway pupils from Millfield, one of Britain's public schools, are back at home after being stopped by Interpol officers in Greece while on their way to Australia. I Paul de Savary, aged 16. land Nigel Morland-Coon, aged 15, each with a passport and £5O, vanished from Millfield 12 days ago. When stopped, they had travelled 1500 miles through four countries at a cost of only £l5. Nigel Morland-Coon’s father is an art dealer vith business interests in America and Australia, commented: “Apart from the anguish they have caused, one has to admire their enterprise—from Britain to Corfu, through Paris, Burgundy. Milan. Rome, Naples and Brindisi.”