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entrants, which examines ships on entry more quickly than is done, so
far as figures obtained from an officer of the Singapore Iumigration
office go, more expeditiously than the Malayan Immigration Office,
with six years experience behind it, does; and which, I may be permitted
to boast, may have set a new record for hard work on the part of
Government officers. Its ability to carry out its work within the
margin set for it by revenue derived from fess somewhat arbitrarily
fixed, and reduced below the amounts recommended by the draughtsman
of the scheme, has been proved; and there is a substantial balance
available for use on expanding and improving the department's services
to the public and in increasing its efficiency so soon as Government 'a
financial advisers recognised that this balance is not in the ordinary
sense revenue, but an accumulated sum clearly earmarked for that
expansion.
The first cause of the disorganization against which I have had
to struggle was the inadequacy of the time allowed for preparation,
which amounted to two months in all as against the six months during
which the war Taxation Department made ready for its debut. I am here
treating as preparatory the period immediately prior to enforcement of
the Crdinance but subsequent to the opening of the office; that period
was perforce foreshortened because it was wedged in between the date
on which the office accommodation became available, and the latest dice
possible on which the restrictions might be usefully enforced. I ought
perhaps to reckon in the two months of exploration before that date,
but, as I have shown, that period was entirely useless so far as
concerns truining my staff, and almost quite useless as regards any
opportunity for me to gain first-hand acquaintance with the problems
involved, I being at that time fully engaged with my duties as Post
Master General and associated offices. It follows that I had available
only two months in which to obtain for a newly recruited staff, which
never outnumbered those with any previous Government experience by le
than ten to one, the minimum of training required to ensure that on
the date of enforcement they would have clearly in mind the main object
of the legislation and the main outlines of the methods of enforcement