MP to Get Grand Tour of County

Its job is to let the world know that Orange County isn’t just Mickey Mouse, but the staff of the county’s Office of Protocol isn’t quite sure how its first international visitor found that out.

Martin O’Neill, a member of the British Parliament from Scotland, was to arrive in the county Monday evening for a three-day visit that will include a tour of an aerospace plant, a visit to a community college, a good deal of socializing and--maybe--a trip to Disneyland.

“He selected Orange County,” said Pat Ware, administrative coordinator of the Office of Protocol. “I don’t know how he found out about us.”

O’Neill “is very interested in our economy and how we ‘grew up,’ so to speak, from a low-profile, (agricultural) economy” to one based on industry and high technology, Ware said.

And that interest fits right in with the goals of the Office of Protocol: “We’re trying to establish an international identity for the county,” Ware said. “Many visitors (to Los Angeles) would come to Disneyland and not even know they were in a different county.”

The office was established by the Board of Supervisors a year and a half ago to help government and business in Orange County develop contacts throughout the world, to “expand our citizens’ cultural awareness of other nations and . . . to promote international trade and investment,” Ware said.

“It’s taken a little while for us to get off the ground,” she said.

The office’s first official visitor is in the middle of a three-week American tour, part of a State Department program that brings young leaders from other countries to visit the United States. (Its participants include British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Ware said.)

Formerly a teacher, O’Neill, 31, is the Labor Party’s deputy spokesman on defense and disarmament. His itinerary is tailored to his interests in alternative education, defense industries and economic development.

While in Orange County, he will be presented to the Board of Supervisors, tour a McDonnell Douglas plant in Huntington Beach, visit KOCE-TV and meet with directors of telecourses and alternative education programs at Coastline Community College.

Hosted by the Office of Protocol, O’Neill’s trip will also include a taste of Orange County social life, Ware said. “We want to make friendly ties as well as business and professional ties.”

For this visit and others, the Office of Protocol will rely heavily on a network of more than a hundred volunteers “from all walks of life” to help with information, hospitality, tours, cultural stops and social events from cocktail parties to baseball games.

“A lot of dignitaries come to Orange County through the private sector,” Ware said. “Now we are ready to receive official visitors.”

Other stops on O’Neill’s itinerary include Washington, Boston, Lowell, Mass.--to see one of the nation’s first industrial centers--and Charleston, W.Va.--to visit coal mines.