NEW PERMANENT HEAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22006, 12 January 1935, Page 13

NEW PERMANENT HEAD

IMPERIAL AFFAIRS

MR. BERENDSEN'S POST PRIME MINISTER'S DEPARTMENT [BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION'] WELLINGTON, Friday It is now certain that Mr. C. A. Berendsen, Secretary for Imperial and External Affairs, will be appointed permanent head of the Prime Minister's Department, a position which was first held for many years by the late Mr. F. D. Thomson. Mr. Berendsen will retain his secretarial post in connection with Imperial Affairs.

Mr. C. A. Jeffery, who is private secretary to the Prime Minister, who has been acting-clprk of the Executive Council, will continue in the dual position.

Mr. Berendsen, who was appointed to the Imperial Affairs branch in 1926, is 44 years old, and joined the public service in 1906. He has acted as solicitor to the Department of Labour, taking in the Courts all important cases brought by that department.

On his return from active service he was appointed chief clerk and deputyregistrar of industrial unions in 1917 and has been in charge of the Department of Labour on many occasions during the absence of the permanent head. He is familiar with all aspects of industrial law and industrial conditions in the Dominion, and it has been part of his duty to deal with all correspondence connected with the International Labour Office of th? League of Nations.