Top SPC Post

UK Man Named For Top SPC Post

Sir Gawain We stray Bell, a 57year-old Englishman with wide military and government experience in Africa and the Middle East, has been appointed Secretary-General of the South Pacific Commission from January 1 next year.

SIR GAWAIN will take over from Mr. W. D. Forsyth, an Aus tralian, who has held the post for the past three years.

Sir Gawain’s most recent job has been as British Government adviser on constitutional affairs in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, He arrived in Tarawa on October 15.

Sir Gawain has been a member of the British Overseas Civil Service since 1931. He has seen service in the Sudan, Palestine, and Kuwait, and was Governor of Northern Nigeria from 1957 to 1962.

In 1963 he became Secretary- General of the Council for the Middle East and has since carried out a number of assignments in the Middle East including that of con stitutional adviser to the Federal Government of South Arabia, and adviser on administrative organisa tion to the Sultan of Muscat/ He served in the Middle East dur ing the war, and commanded the Third Mechanised Regiment of the Arab Legion in 1943-45. He was demobilised in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Sir Gawain Bell