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ne seem ners renee qv } 360$ Former Forelgn Office) 4 NOVEMBER 19557" ona oo V thon, Member tor Covenuy, Ess (Me? sot Crossman) spoke: -.. oppearance 1606f ~~" g0 abroad, ‘a Diptomaite’ Service: which operated entirely abroad, a Cont ” Perhaps the purposes Or the context of ular Service again abroad and | those reforms are not yet entirely under- | stood. What happened was that before * 3919 there was a Forcign Office in London and a Diplomatic Service, entirely together. Before they were brought to- resi of the Civil Service. They were as past of the Civil Service before the two Joined together. Then in 1943 we added to those two organisations—the Forciga Office as it then was and the Diplomatic Service—two numerically very - farge ofganisations, the Consular and Commer- cia] and Diplomatic. We made the whole into one single service: 1.4 aff One or two hon. Members in the de-? bate have suggested that that was not a very good plan and that we should go' back to considering putting the Foreiga Service as it was, making it pari of the Civil Service... Frankly, 1 thin that that is absolutely unworkable, and E should like to tell the House why. The first Teason ig that members of this amal- gamated Foreign Service. undertook thereby fo accept service either at home or abroad. That is something which can- fot be asked of anybody who is in Civil Service today. 1n fact, at the Moment in the Foreign Office there are three abroad to one al home. The fargle Proportion is still overseas, So any ques- tion of merging them with the ivil Service more closely must be ruled out. As a matter of fact, there are very con- siderable tempora exchanges—and that | is all to the —exchanges with the Commonwealth Relations Office, with the Board of Trade and with the Ministry of bour. Those are sil helpful and, over and above that, today individuals do ete are ee i , with their working, then by all means. sew Omer a ohe'D rom athe , Foreign let us have a seview, but £ do not waat: =" tersa. That bas been going on ever ¢ince’ to have that seview how after such - the reforms were instituted. Tam frankly sbort spell of experimeat. °c to 8 believer in those reforms—naturafly—? and ¥ think that they are havin; i i . westions which have been asked about’ eflect on the working of the Foreign Maclean, and to which ‘the’ right: hon.” Service, .-¥ &- + ayn las Member for Blyth added, My Fon. ang? r gallant Friend the Member for Perth and: those reforms, my main concern then was East Perthshire (Colonel Gom: to When ¥ asked the Cabinet to approve’ Prevent the contisuation of the Foscign Prevent having a Foreign and they were uniformly pood upon 4 . separate. In that year they were brought’ Make it possible for members of att four: gtiher, it can be fairly said that they had’ © Where they were best fitted to BOT: rate a certain fairly close affiliation with the: + Arrangements yet. We must give the asked whether there were any reports oat vice in its various Departments, to’ Maclean. Yes, most certainly there were’ Ofice that did Com." : mercia) Service yet something else, That ‘7 oct seemed utterly ‘wrong in these moderd>*": times and that the thing 10 do was to, bring all four Services together and to- to move from one to the other according’ ZT ami quite’ sure dist that conception? -* © is still the Sight one, and that it is rij ht ¥ for Someone in {he Consular Serve, if be. 5 shows the particular quality, to aS an ambassador, as tome have ia recent” apne (ears, or for someone in Grade A of the} ae oicien, Service, who did a 00g con sular job in some post, probably ning’ a great deal more of the aspect of com-t mercial matters than he would otherwise! be able to do. rt: tise 2 ie ward | House on all that is not to touch these, »... matter a Jittle time to see how it is going, to work out. J do not want now anything, in the nature of a formal review of bow, these changes—some of which have’ been in force for a very few years—are,s in fact, working out. But that does Rot: Prevent us from taking any action wer think fit at any time to make adjustments; < as they seem necessary as these teformg, PL i. cetid get E i bsg "Tsay frankly that ¥ deeply’ regret “and 1 know that the whole House does—that Ms. Bevin is not now here to take part nothing which is not known to many? people. whea I say that we had maoy_ discussions on this question of reforms- when Mr. Bevin succeeded me at thet Foreign Office { believe that they must: be given a full trial, When that has been’ = done, and, if the House is not satisfied ! Later *- I will now’ deal with some Mf ai! me-Duncan)* = 5 eae ih.