§ Mr. Whitakerasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what proportion of members of the British Diplomatic Service are now engaged principally on commercial promotional work, compared with previous years.
§ Mr. Mulley:It is difficult to make precise comparisons with earlier years, since the unified Diplomatic Service providing our commercial representation in both Commonwealth and foreign countries dates only from 1st January, 1965. The staff in representational grades in the Diplomatic Service now filling full-time commercial posts form 22 per cent. of the total staff in these grades overseas. The comparable percentage for the Foreign Service in 1964 was 18 per cent.; in 1958 it was 15 per cent. This does not 435W include Heads of Mission or Consuls-General much of whose work is largely commercial; nor the large number of staff who are engaged part-time in commercial work.
§ Mr. Whitakerasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will list in the OFFICIAL REPORT the places where additional British commercial consular or attaché posts have been created since 1964.
§ Mr. MulleyThese places (showing additional full-time posts) are:
Commercial Consular Attaché Brussels Tel Aviv Bonn San Salvador Rabat Paris Lyons Beira Washington Paris Atlanta Athens Berlin Hanoi Tehran Budapest U.K. Delegation To E.E.C., Djakarta Haifa Brussels Milan Stockholm Kuwait Beirut Tripoli Benghazi Manila Jedda Johannesburg Las Palmas Boston Chicago Houston New York St. Louis Washington
§ Mr. Whitakerasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs how many experienced former salesmen or businessmen are at present employed by the British Diplomatic Service.
§ Mr. Mulley:At present I estimate that approximately 200 career officers in the representational grades have a commercial or industrial background.
People with practical commercial or industrial experience are encouraged to compete for posts in the Diplomatic Service, through a scheme for supplementary recruitment open to candidates from 27 to 40 (or in some cases, 45) years old.