Catalogue description Review Committee on Overseas Representation (Duncan Committee): Records

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The Review Committee on Overseas Representation was set up following a letter of 7 August 1968 from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the chairperson of the committee, Sir Val Duncan, chairman and chief executive of Rio Tinto-Zinc Corporation Ltd. The letter stated:

"Review urgently the functions and scale of British representational effort overseas (including defence and other attachés) in the light of the decisions on foreign and defence policy announced by HMG on 16 January 1968, the balance of payments, and the changing international role which these imply to the UK; to make recommendations, particularly on the furtherance of British commercial and economic interests overseas and, in arriving at these recommendations, to consider the value to HMG of work done and information submitted by overseas posts in the political field; to have regard to the functions and scale of representation by other major Western European countries; to bear in mind, in the light of the current need for the strictest economy, the importance of obtaining the maximum value for all British government expenditure and the consequent desirability of providing British overseas representation at a lesser cost; and to aim to report within six months, in order that the benefit of any savings may accrue as rapidly as possible".