Diplomat’s stay 'rewarding’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33434, 16 January 1974, Page 2

Diplomat’s stay 'rewarding’

Mr W. J. Humble, the first secretary at the British High Commission Office in Christchurch for the last five years, will return to Britain at the end of next month. A well-known figure in jtrade, diplomatic and social • circles in Christchurch, Mr Rumble and his wife will have two months of leave in Britain before they go to Colombo. Sri Lanka, where Mr Rumble will take up a new post. His Christchurch stav has been his longest in any post. “Normally, it would have been of four years, but my period was extended because of the Commonwealth Games.” he said yesterday. Since he joined the British' diplomatic service in 1958. ‘Mr Rumble and his wife have served in .Jamaica. Dublin. Bagdad, South Africa, and in the Commonwealth Office in London. I “In some place*. it is hot

from getting on with the job’ in hand you find yourself looking forward to going: home for your four months of leave,” he said. "In Christchurch. my wife and I have never felt this way; the place'

has made us feel very much at home.” The pipe-smoking, softspoken Mr Rumble described his five years in the city as rewarding. “When I came, there was great foreboding about. Europe, and whether Britain would succeed in turning the Six into Nine, and a lot of New Zealand interests were very apprehensive about it all. “I personally was not, as I was convinced New Zealand’s vital interests would be safeguarded in the critical negotiations, and this is howj it eventually turned out.” Mr Rumble said British industry was today giving considerably more attention to I the New’ Zealand market than j in the early 19605. Trade missions from Britain were better prepared than in the past, and the number of visits to New Zea- i land by individual business-! men had increased. This implied that competition was keener, and that Britain continued to regard New Zea-! land as an important trading! market. Although Britain’s over-alb

share of the New Zealand market had diminished in the last 10 years, Mr Rumble said, he did not expect any marked future changes in the trade between the two countries. One of the main problems in trade was delivery, but this, he added, was a worldwide problem common to most manufacturing countries. Mr Rumble, aged 53, was awarded the 0.8. E. in the British New Year honours list. He said he enjoyed the diplomatic life, though at times the social round could be fatiguing. The main draw-! back to the life was its effect on family life. Fortunately, he added, the Foreign Service made available generous education and travel concessions for next of kin which more than compensated for this inconvenience. Mr Rumble’s successor in the post will be Mr A. E. Farrell, the present, first secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. He will arrive in Christchurch on February 22.