Standing Liaison Committee
| Standing Liaison Committee | |
|---|---|
| 政事寮 | |
| Active | Jan. 5, 1945 – now |
| Country | Themiclesia |
| Branch | Inter-service |
| Commanders | |
| Permanent Secretary | Njem Gwra C. |
| Senior Counsellor | Gen. Joshua Kun |
| Clerk of Naval Operations | Adm. Yamada Arikuma |
| Chief of Air Staff | Gen. Nam Pei |
The Standing Liaison Committee (政事寮, tingh-mskreqs-rū) is a sub-committee of the Ministerial Council of the Ministry of Defence, consisting of senior civil servants and military officers from all services. Its main duty is to advise the Secretary of State for Defence, in his role as commander-in-chief of all armed forces, on matters relating to the armed forces, particularly military operations. While the committee's advice is seldom disregarded by the Secretary of State, it does not have binding force on the armed forces. Nevertheless, as the body operates under the ministerial seal, its deliberations are considered confidential for 30 years.
Composition
The Standing Committee consists of the following members ex officio:
- Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Defence (尚書令史), sitting as chairperson
- Counsellor-in-chief (中記中錄室中參政) to the Consolidated Board, representing the Consolidated Army and Reserved Army
- Senior Clerk of the Naval Operations Office (航卒史), representing the Themiclesian Navy
- Chief of Air Staff (汽中記室長), representing the Themiclesian Air Force
The following is always invited by courtesy to the interior minister:
- Commandant of the Themiclesian Coast Guard
Operation
While the Standing Committee is considered a sub-committee of the Ministerial Conference, the latter body in reality rarely interferes with its activities. This is because the full conference is dominated by civil servants not invovled in military operations on a more detailed level. The Standing Committee's decisions are usually presented to the Conference, where the Secretary of State can make a decision while under its advice or reserve decision for a later time. In emergency situations, such as during the Maverican intervention of 1957 – 60, the Standing Committee can also give advice to the Secretary of State, who is represented by the Permanent Secretary.
The Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, the professional head of the ministry, chairs the Standing Committee, while the other members sit by virtue of their positions as professional heads of their respective services. While Themiclesian law recognizes many more services than these three, they are considered representatives, as far as military operations are concerned, of all the services that ultimately connect to them by special statutes. According to memoirs, the committee operates on a consensual basis and does not hold formal votes; some believe this design inhibited the services from unduly influencing the actions of their representatve on the committee.
Other civil and military officers may be invited to participate in the Standing Committee's meetings, but only at the initiative of their respective service chiefs. For example, the Captain-general of Marines can be invited only by the Chief Baron of the Admiralty, courtesy to the Chief Baron's jurisdiction as head of the naval service; such invitation may be ad hoc or be offered for the duration of an event. At times, invitations can double the committee's size, but it is considerd poor form for one service chief to invite more of his subordinates than other service chiefs. The Permanent Secretary is likewise permitted to invite civil servants who may be relevant to affairs at hand, but this is infrequent in practice. There is no statutory quorum for the Standing Committee, but it cannot technically sit without the Permanent Secretary or his designee present.
Because the Themiclesian Coast Guard is under the portfolio of the Home Secretary, the Commandant of the Coast Guard is always given a courtesy invitation to the Standing Committee with permission from the Home Secretary, and no Home Secretary has ever withheld permission. It is however necessary to obtain the Home Secretary's sign-manual each time the Committee sits, which can be delayed.
The Permanent Secretary, who is not a military officer, acts as a neutral chairperson and prepares the Standing Committee's agenda. He is not expected to favour one member over another or present their own plans for military operations. They are responsible for minuting the discussion and communicating proceedings to the Secretary of State, and as such they may regulate the discussion by asking members to elaborate on topics the Secretary of State has identified or may be interested in, or by terminating irrelevant speeches. The Committee's deliberations are normally unregulated: members do not need the chairperson's permission to speak, but if exchanges becomes heated or disorderly, the Permanent Secretary may appoint speakers, rule a member's utterances out of order, or adjourn the meeting to another time altogether. It is understood in modern times these things rarely occur, if only for the potential responsibility resulting from cutting short a necessary speech.
History
Prior to 1945, the services conducted operations independently, and inter-service operations must normally pass the Cabinet. When the services needed assistance from each other, their chiefs usually so briefed ministers, who then raised the topic at Cabinet or Cabinet committees; however, it was early realized ministers often had conflicting priorities that may prevent the services' requests from even reaching Cabinet discussion. For example, the Chief Baron of the Naval Board complained to his admirals that he "would owe many favours" to the President of the Consolidated Board if he communicated all their requests to him.
When the Pan-Septentrion War neared its conclusion, Themiclesian military operations extended from Maverica to Menghe, requiring routine co-operation between the army and navy. To prevent inter-service business from clogging up the agenda, the Cabinet ordered the two Cabinet Secretaries to chair an ad hoc committee between the chiefs of the Consolidated Army and Themiclesian Navy and present their "considered opinion" to the Cabinet. In 1946, the air force was included, and then ad hoc meetings became routine. The absence of ministers was by design, as ultimately the Cabinet would still discuss and decide upon committee's joint recommendations. Dozens of staff officers were posted to the Cabinet Office to assist several inter-service committees, including one on intelligence.
Controversies
Since the 1950s, there has been a minor but persistent debate amongst military officers who is the most senior uniformed officer of amongst all Themiclesian armed forces. Due to legal complications, the Cabinet Office has ruled that this question "has neither obvious relevance to national defence nor an obvious answer". The question was beset by conflicts with the order of precedence at court, and the problem that many military offices were created in medieval times without specifying their ranks in comparison with others. Some of these offices retained concrete functions, but others did not. The former practice was to link these offices with comparable positions in the civil service; this would put many officers above service chiefs and disrupt the internal rank structure of the army and navy.
Given international trends in appointing inter-service chiefs of defence, the Foreign Office recommended that a compromise be found if for no reason other than diplomatic convenience. In 1978, the Government ruled that the service chief who has been in that office the longest amongst other service chiefs will be considered the first amongst peers and thus the most senior commissioned officer in Themiclesia. However, this position is purely honorary and carries no authority or benefit of any kind. At roughly the same time, there was a desire to replace the Permanent Secretary with a uniformed officer in his capacity as chairperson of the Standing Committee; however, this has never been formally considered because the current arrangement was deemed stable and satisfactory.