PM Transcripts

FOR PRESS PM. No. 56L90
CHANGES IN TOP PUBLIC SERVICE POSTS
Statement by the Prime Minister, Mr John Gorton
A number of changes in top Public Service posts
will take place as a result of the retirement on 22 July of. the Chairman
of the Repatriation Commission, Brigadier Sir Frederick Chilton.
Mr Richard Kingsland, who has been Secretary of the Department of
the Interior since 1963, will succeed Sir Frederick as Chairman of the
Repatriation Commission. The Secretary of the Department of External
Territories, Mr G. H. Warwick Smith, will take over as Permanent
Head of the Department of the Interior, and at External Territories, he
will be succeeded by Mr David Hay, who has been Administrator of
Papua and New Guinea since 1967.
The new Administrator will be Mr L. W. Johnson, who
has been Assistant Administrator ( Services) since 1966.
Sir Frederick Chilton has been Chairman of the
Repatriation Commission since 1958. He was a gifted and imaginative
administrator, and established and maintained good relationships with
ex-servicemen's organisations, the medical profession and other
related authorities. Mr Warwick Smith has served for six years in the
exacting position of Secretary of External Territories. In selecting
Mr Hay as his successor, the Government has appointed a man with a
first-hand knowledge of current conditions in Papua and New Guinea.
This intimate knowledge of the country and its people should be
particularly beneficial in the period of development ahead.
The changes will take effect from 23 July 1970.
CANBERRA, May 1970