BLACK SKIN, WHITEHALL:
Race and the Foreign Office 1945-2018
Written by James
Southern and published by FCO Historians
as History Notes issue 21
An interesting survey/analysis of the ‘history of race at
the Foreign Office’ which is not a
history of empire or British policy but an account of the absence of BAME staff
at the FCO in post-war period. It's a history
of race discrimination in recruitment for the diplomatic service, with many
eloquent quotations from FCO archives.
In
1965, for example, Dennis Fowler of Diplomatic Service admin branch was in
favour in principle of admitting three male
civil servants who applied for transfer to FCO.
One born in Barbados, then a clerical officer in Ministry of Housing;
one born in India then working with Atomic Energy Authority; and one born in
Guyana working for the Colonial Service.
All were denied transfer on the ground that they might ‘still be susceptible
to Indian and West Indian influence. Mr Chin [born in Guyana] has a Chinese name
and the inherent nationalism of the Chinese is such that he may even be
susceptible to Chinese influence’. In 1988
there were 88 ‘ethnic minority’ staff in the Diplomatic Service,, with just one
in the senior rank alongside 1118 whites and at the lowest levels 66 among 2326
total. The careers of high-flying Noel
Jones and Robin Chatterjie are examined; sadly, both died prematurely so their
own accounts are not available, but both appear to have felt the need to ignore
or deny their exceptionality.
The latest material cited in the text are interviews conducted
by the author in summer 2018. In a
contribution to the survey, Fouzia Younis and Muna Shamsuddin from the FCO’s
BAME Network write ‘this year we
celebrated the first black female career diplomat being appointed to an
ambassadorial post; over 23% of graduate entry intake is from a BAME
background; and we hope to see the first BAME member appointed to the FCO Board
in 2018.’ At the same time, when they
accompany overseas visitors in the UK, their hosts often mistake them for being
in the foreign delegation, not the home team, and ‘we still do not have enough
black applicants being successful when
applying for Fast Stream posts.’
Black Skin, Whitehall
has many statistics, citations and observations of interest. It doesn’t have publication details or reference
number, but gives just ‘gov.uk/fco’ as its origin, so let’s hope it is easily available
via that route.
