FIFTH STAFF POSITION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85-00024R000300630001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 27, 2007
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 24, 1982
• Content Type: LETTER

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x,201 FILE
_. EXEC. REf - -
Chief
1-long Kong Bureau, FBIS
Dear Sue: Subj: Fifth Staff Position
Ref: FBIS/Hong Kong 87016, same subj
No fair! You ask Headquarters if you can have another staff position;
then you ask us to justify it for you.
It's impossible to tell from your cable how you actually put the request
for the extra Staff position to the Consulate General. If you presented
your arguments in the order in which they dppear in your cable you may
have stepped off on your weakest foot.
Using Production Group's recruiting problems to justify a fifth staffer
sounds suspiciously like trying to transfer routine Headquarters work to
the field--an arguable proposition from many points of view, not least of
which is the undesirability of taking dollars out of the U.S. economy and
spending them overseas. Any txi r cuireinents for current information
should be folded into your normal coverage. They thus become Hong Kong
Bureau requirements. If Prod needs help it's because Hong Kong can't do
the full current collection mission properly. At least, that's the way I'd
look at it.
In other words, you must justify your staffing request on the basis
of what the bureau needs to fulfill its mission. You can cite your file
growth over the years, the enormous increase of Mainland sources the bureau
is expected to process and the other added coverage such as regional voice,
lv, You can also point to the non-Staff
buildup which has and taKing pi ace in Hong Kong, the growth of require-
ments and the file increases that you anticipate, the need for speed and
accuracy, and the need to keep American control over the output at all
times.
Enclosed is a chart showing the file volumes of the other bureaus.
Hong Kong is operating at a higher file volume than our bureaus
with five or six American staff. We added another American position at
both Nicosia and Panama this past year and their file volumes are lower
than yours. Admittedly they have more crisis and "flash" coverage than
Hong Kong, and more short items, but that is where your volume figures
ought to count. Five Americans represent a bare minimum at which a bureau
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can be expected to handle the coverage and ensure the accuracy of a file
the size of Hong Kong's, manning shifts and accommodating to rotations and
routine sick and annual leave while keeping an American on duty.
If you are forced to reduce staff in the face of a growing file (w1uch
in effect is what the Consul General is telling you, although he probably
doesn't recognize it) you will be forced to-reexamine the bureau's output
and perhaps cut back and transfer some work to Washington, with attendant
delays and so on. This argument ought to rattle the Political Section and
may dram up some support in that quarter.
Prograimiatically (there's some bureaucratic doubletalk for you) we
have you penciled in for another associate editor in FY-83 and an extra
Staff officer in FY-84, but I think you ought to press on with your request
now when Trowbridge is on the brink of leaving and you will be breaking in a
green staff. Adding another associate would give you as many foreigners to
cover shifts as himericans. That is undesirable in our view from the standpoint
of file integrity.
Last, but not least, China is still the number two collection priority
after the USSR! Good luck with your next pitch.
All portions of this document are classified SECRET.
Sincerely,
Chief, Operations Group
Enclosure
As stated
FBIS/Ops~
(2l4ay82)
Distribution:
Orig - Addressee (w/enc)
1 - AC/DRD (w/enc)
1 - MIIQ file (wo/enc)
1. - Exec. Reg. (w/cnc)
12 - C/Ops (w/enc)
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 Approved For Release 2007/11/27: CIA-RDP85-00024R000300630001 2 42
0
To : Acting Chief, Daily Reporting Division
From: Chief, Communications Center/DRD
Subj: Semi-Annual traffic reports (14-20 March, 1982)
I
PERATIONS GROUP FILE
-c VA - e ~YL. C~'~~~ .~.k
(wordage compari son
with
W (Bureau) (daily wordage)
(dailyirrmessages)
(average groups)
?18-24 Oct., 1981)
q
"7
..f (
!
London 88,214
Okinawa 32,298
Bangkok 25,910
Hong Kong 21,476
Vienna
18,401 16,491
Seoul
Panama 16,488
Nicosia 14__-920
Gulf 14,883
el Aviv 13,020
Paraguay 9,070
Abidjan 7,906
Key West 6,224
Jordan 6,163
240.6
102
74
34.7
38
49
33.7
21
+ 5,473
2,303
+ 3,810
+ 8,949
3,002
3,057
+ 3,270
10,733
+ 6,286
+ 2,1.24
+ 1,419
+ 1,693
+ 3,124
3,844
2,709
6STAT
(totals) (294,173)
(837.8)
(351)
(+ 13,149)
(Oct 81) (281,024)
(843)
(333)
(Mar 81) (274,856)
(799)
(343)
(Oct 80) (278,417)
(855)
(326)
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