Chapter 19: Faster than the Speed of Thought

The Chief Secretary of the time, Sir Philip Haddon-Cave, decided if ISD was to meet the greater demands now placed on it, in a time of uncertainty and anxiety over what the future might bring, the department was due for an overhaul.

On an inspection of Beaconsfield House, not only ISD but also other floors still occupied by miscellaneous and largely non-departmental tenants, he encountered a rat. Nobody is entirely clear as to the precise setting for this encounter - or even if the rat was there entirely of its own volition - but it was momentous for the results it produced. In Sir Philip's mind the cause was due to the presence of food on the premises. The messes, together with their assorted restaurants, would have to go.

The news was greeted with jubilation among information officers and their loyally-supportive but long-suffering administrative personnel. Not only would they no longer have to share the one and only lift with porters in blood-stained aprons bearing raw carcasses and baskets of meat, but there was finally a real prospect of freeing up some space for long overdue expansion within the building.

Another of Sir Philip's decisions was to have a greater impact on the management not only of the building but of the department itself. He selected Peter Tsao from the administrative grade to head ISD - making him the first director without prior experience of the department's workings. Tsao's immediate predecessor, Bob Sun, may have spent a long sojourn outside the ranks of the civil service, heading the publicity arm of the Trade Development Council, but he possessed considerable knowledge of how ISD functioned from his news room days.

Tsao had cut his teeth in Trade and Industry, long before that department outgrew its boots and broke up into separate spheres of responsibility. He had made a name for driving hard bargains across the discussion table whenever Hong Kong had to fight against restrictive practices and other barriers set up against its survival in global trade markets.

He arrived in ISD with a charismatic personality, a blunt manner, an aggressive attitude and - some suggested - a determination, if necessary, to turn the department upside down with his demands for better results. He began at the top by bringing new blood into the directorate and replacing all but one of its posts. The sole survivor, Moss, who until then had been the youngest assistant director, suddenly found himself the oldest.

Though he insisted on maintaining the time-honoured ritual of morning briefings, to catch up on overnight news and discuss any response that might be necessary, Tsao laid even heavier insistence upon the latter consequence. His style was nothing if not proactive. "I feel particularly robust this morning," he would announce to those assembled at the elongated table in his office, thereby making it clear he was in no disposition to accept negative advice.

Some of the old-timers at these morning meetings, including Geoffrey Somers and Harry Tsui, found this disinclination hard to accept. It was, they felt, their job to play devil's advocate and to point out the possible negative repercussions of any course of action. At one such meeting Somers, who decided he had taken enough, snapped back at Tsao and reduced the table to silence.

Tsao said nothing at the time but, when the meeting broke up, enquired privately what had precipitated the outburst. Told it was probably due to the stress under which everyone was working, Tsao nodded affably and said he perfectly understood. He would forgive anyone surrendering to such pressure, but added - holding up a finger to emphasise the point - 'once'.

Among the new arrivals in the directorate were Cheung Man-yee, also brought in from outside the information grade, although at least it could be argued she had come from the related field of broadcasting, Irene Yau and Kerry McGlynn. The latter had years of experience heading departmental information units, including a stint running the press office of the Hong Kong Government Office in London, where he had been closely involved with promoting, under his old boss at ISD, Commissioner David Ford, the ambitious Hong Kong in London carnival staged at Battersea Park in 1980.

Irene too was steeped in departmental information work, including a long stint as head of the Police Public Relations Division, and had a acquired a wealth of experience of both public relations and news.

Tsao expected his new team to behave as a 'think tank', matching him in brilliant ideas as to how to engender public confidence in a time of great uncertainty, when the whole question of Hong Kong's future was thrown into debate, when the Hong Kong dollar was plunging and the stock market went into a tail spin. Another of his catch phrases was "Crisis? How do you spell crisis?" As though the whole concept of a crisis was alien to him and not to be entertained.

Proposals would sometimes ricochet so alarmingly inside this think tank that its one surviving 'old timer' would duck for cover, dodging ideas which he grumbled were 'flying faster than the speed of thought'.