PRIME MINISTER’S DEPARTMENT

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 95, 16 January 1935, Page 8

PRIME MINISTER’S DEPARTMENT

Two Appointments

MR. C. A. BERENDSEN AND MR. C. A. JEFFERY

Official confirmation was given by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. AV. Forbes, yesterday, to an announcement in “The Dominion” last Saturday that it was certain that Mr. C. A. Berendsen, secretary of the External Affairs Department and Imperial Affairs officer, would be appointed Permanent Head of the Prime Minister’s Department—a position formerly held by the late Mr. F. D. Thomson, C.M.G., and that Mr. C. A. Jeffery, Chief Private Secretary to tlie Prime Minister, would become Clerk of the Executive Connell. The appointments have been finalised by the Government. In making the announcement yesterday, tlie Prime Minister explained that Mr. Berendsen would still retain his

present position of .Secretary for External Affairs, and his duties as Imperial Affairs Officer would be absorbed in his new office. Mr. Forbes also stated that his Excellency the Governor-General, as President of the Executive Council, had concurred in the appointment of Mr. C. A. Jeffery, Chief Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, as Clerk of the Executive Council; Mr. Jeffery Ims also been appointed to the position of Secretary to Cabinet.

Mr. C. A. Berendsen, who is 44 years old. was educated at Victoria University College, where he graduated LL.M. He joined the Public Service m 1906. Eleven years later he became chief clerk of the Department of Labour, and acted as its solicitor, taking in the courts all important cases brought by the department. On return from active service he was appointed deputy-registrar of industrial unions in 1917, and on many occasions showed a wide knowledge of all aspects of industrial law and conditions in the Dominion. Since his appointment to .the Imperial Affairs branch of the Prime Minister’s Department, Mr. Berendsen has dealt with many problems concerning the mandated territory of Western Samoa. It has also been part of his comprehensive duties to deal with all correspondence with tlie International Labour Office of tlie League of Nations. Mr. C. A. Jeffery joined the Post and Telegraph Department in 1904, and served in the cable station at AVhaka puaka, and also at tlie head office in Wellington. In 191.4 he was selected to assist at Government House in the extra secretarial work caused by the war. In 1915 he was private secretary to the late Sir Arthur ■Myers, then Minister of Munitions. Mr. Jeffery, in 1916. joined, the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and was on active service until the end of •the war. On returning to the Dominion lie resumed tiis former position with ■Sir Arthur Myers. In 1919 lie was appointed private secretary to the Hon. J. B. Hine, then Minister of Internal Affairs. On Mr. Hine’s defeat at the general election poll, Mr. Jeffery was attached to tlie secretarial staff of the late Mr. W. F. Massey, who was Prime Minister. Following that statesman’s death, Mr. Jeffery was appointed to a secretarial position on tiic staff of the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates. He became the Prime Minister’s chief private secretary, following tlie appointment of the late Mr. F. D. Thomson as Permanent Head of Prime Minister’s Department. Since then Mr. Jeffery successively has been chief private secretary to three Prime Ministers —the Kt. Hon. J. G. Coates, the late Sir Joseph Ward, and the Rt. Hon. G. AV. Forbes. Twice he has visited London in connection with Imperial Conferences, first in 1930 and again in 1933. For some time he has been acting clerk of the Executive Council and secretary to the Cabinet.