PZ 1070/40(2) ‘Transmission of F.O. secret packets to & from Consulates etc. abroad’ [‎34r] (68/835)

5
according to the needs of the moment and the efficiency of the individual. Very
often we have to keep a man abroad because he cannot fit in at home. As things
are now, very often the Foreign Secretary’s whole freedom of action is very
largely confined.
The White Paper deals with the reasons for the amalgamation of the three
j^ervices, and I hope that the House will consider that these reasons are sound.
'There will always be a distinction of functions between the consular work, the
commercial diplomatic work and the diplomatic work pure and simple. They are
different kinds of jobs, and they will require different kinds of people to do them,
but even though there is this difference, it will not be obliterated by anything that
my right hon. friend proposes. It is, in his view, of the greatest importance that
there should be the fullest possible interchange and the fullest possible fusion
between the three branches of the service, and for this he has three main reasons.
In the first place, present conditions are extremenly unfair in this respect, that
some men spend the whole of their careers in the most interesting and fascinating
political posts in the great capitals of the world, whereas other men are
condemned to spend the whole of their careers in some dark and gloomy outpost
where there is very little political interest and very little excitement of any kind,
and, from the point of view of fairness and of the spirit of the service as a
whole, that is not at all a satisfactory arrangement. That is the first reason.
The second reason is, that it is vitally important, if you are to have this new
service and if you are to have the right spirit in that service, that the highest
posts should be open to every member of the service, from whatever branch of
it he comes. The third reason is, that it is vitally important that every member
of the service, in whatever branch he may be working, should have, as far as
possible, an all-round knowledge of foreign affairs as a whole; that is to say,
that the political diplomat should have knowledge and understanding of economic
questions and that the consular and commercial diplomat should have equal
knowledge and understanding of the political background of the perhaps more
technical questions with which he is dealing. Of course, it will not be possible to
have an amalgamation of the services in the sense that every man who enters the
new service will spend a third of his life in the consular service, a third of his
life in the diplomatic and a third of his life in the commercial diplomatic. That
will not be possible, nor would it be desirable. In fact, it will be found that
some men have a special aptitude for commercial and consular work and others
a special aptitude for political work, and eventually each one will settle down to
his own speciality. But it is intended that in the early part of his career every
man shall have some period of service in each of the three branches of the service,
and that, in my right lion, friend’s view—and I hope that the House will agree
with him—should be definitely to the advantage of the service as a whole.
Now there are three great advantages which should accrue from the
amalgamation of the three services. You cannot have great advantages without
having some compensating disadvantages, and I would like to say a word or two
about those disadvantages. In the first place, if you have a Foreign Service of
700 men and it is your intention that each one of those men shall serve at one time
or another in each of the three branches, and that each one shall serve a period
in London so that he will know this country as well as foreign countries, it is
possible that the spells of duty of any given Foreign Service man in London will
be very short, and that, in consequence, he will not have that knowledge of
conditions in this country that he must have if he is effectively to represent this
country abroad. My right hon. friend is aware of that danger, and hopes that it
will be possible to bring men home from time to time for short refresher courses
both in the Foreign Office and, if possible, in other Government departments,
where they will get a background of knowledge which will be useful to them when
they go abroad again. Another obvious difficulty about amalgamation is that if
it takes place on the pre-war basis, the consular officials would together outswamp
the diplomatic, and, if we are to get a combined and effective service, that is not
at all desirable.
My right hon. friend is, therefore, proposing to mitigate that disadvantage
in the following ways : He proposes, first of all, to make an increase in the
diplomatic posts. As I shall say in a few minutes, our diplomacy has suffered
very much in the past from understaffing. My right hon. friend proposes to make
some reduction in the consular posts. I would not like it to be thought that
because he proposes to make this reduction he sets no value, or very little value,
upon the work which our consuls are doing all over the world. That is not the
case at all; he sets great store by that work. He proposes to make up for the
reduction in the consuls partly by regrouping the existing consular posts so that
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