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before the Parganisation bone formally into existendeagat1 wasofosle for some of them to study on the spot the progress which was being made in East Africa and to prepare gradually for the responsibilities which they were to assume. Sir Leslie Plummer-then Mr. L. A. Plummer-(the Chairman-Designate) and Major-General Desmond Harrison (the Resident Member in East Africa-Designate) were able to visit East Africa in the autumn of 1947, and Mr. A. J. Wakefield (a Member-Designate of the Corporation) had been appointed Technical Adviser to the Managing. Agency.
The Organisation of the Board
7. The Board of the Corporation was formally appointed by the Minister of Food on February 16, 1948, and March 1, 1948, was fixed as the date on which the responsibility of United Africa Co. (Managing Agency) Ltd. to the Ministry of Food for groundnut production in East Africa was to be transferred to the Corporation. On March 31, 1948, the Corporation took over the day-to-day direction of operations in East Africa.
8. The Board consisted of a Chairman free from departmental responsibili- ties, a Deputy-Chairman (with departmental responsibilities) and seven other Members. Of these four were full-time (with departmental responsibilities) and three part-time Members.
9. In East Africa, the Heads of Departments were responsible to the Central Management in East Africa and, through it, to the Board in London.
10. For reasons which will emerge in a later section of this report (paras.. 138, 139), it was necessary in January, 1949, for the Chairman to assume temporarily in East Africa the functions of the Resident Member and he was joined later by three of the Executive Members of the Board. During this period management decisions, in addition to decisions on policy and organisa- tion, were taken by the Board on the spot. The normal practice of the Corporation however reserves to the Board decisions on policy and the examination of the proposals, plans and budget estimates put forward by the East African Management, while leaving to them full managerial respon-- sibility for the execution of the directions which result from such examination. and policy decisions. It is considered unlikely that further occasions will. arise to vary this practice.
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11. The Executive Members, besides being in daily contact with each. other, met formally twice a week.
12. The part-time Members, Lord Rothschild, Mr. Frank Samuel and Sir Frank Stockdale, exercised no executive authority. The full Board of Members held 17 meetings during the year.
Queensland-British Food Corporation.
13. In January, 1948, Mr. Plummer and Mr. Wakefield, with an official of the Ministry of Food, visited Australia to examine the possibilities of undertaking there some schemes for the mechanised production of food. This visit resulted in a provisional agreement being reached with the Premier of Queensland, the Hon. E. M, Hanlon, Member of the Legislative Assembly, for a scheme for the large-scale production of sorghum and pigs for export to the United Kingdom. This proposal was approved by His Majesty's Government in March, 1948, and the legislation was passed through the Queensland Parliament to set up the Queensland-British Food Corporation to direct this project. The Act setting up this subsidiary of the Overseas Food Corporation received the Royal Assent on April 2, 1948.