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continued until we decided to allow a limited number at a time behind
re the counter to obtain their permits or their despot funds, after
which they left by the back door.
We had far too little furniture. we had to rent some and we had
to borrow some. For days we used two or three wicker stools which we
borrowed from the photographer. For days, it was impossible for some
of the staff to work and for well over three weeks, I myself did not
have a chair because not enough desks or chairs were provided.
During the days of temporary furniture, when working pressure was at
its height, we were provided with eight black dining room tables, but
even these were better than nothing.
We did not have enough stationery or foolscap books and consider-
able delays in the issue of permits were occasioned when we were not
supplied with the necessary permit forms and residence certificates. On
several occasions we almost ran out of stock and, as a result, we had to
ration our issue. I know the Immigration Officer made repeated request
for fresh supplies and it was some days before he received them.
With reference to the question of shroffs, I am certain that, had
we a couple of extra shroffs, the work of the Immigration Office would
have been accelerated considerably.
We ran out of security deposit receipt books just before the
Chinese New Year and, although we made frantic appeals for new supplies,
none were forthcoming. The situation became so serious indeed that, on
the eve of Chinese New Year's Day, the Immigration Officer sent me out
to try and get some non-Government printer to print some. I went from
printer to printer but none would agree to undertake the job because
they said that it could not be done in time and because their staffs
were off for the Chinese New Year. I asked the Editor of the South
China Morning Post for aid but his reply was virtually the same, that
his staff had been depleted on account of the Chinese New Year. I asked
if he could make some suggestions and he made a few which finally led
me to the Central News Agency, whose manager very kindly agreed to print on his mimeograph five hundred receipt forms. These were deliver- ed to me after the Immigration Officer had written an official letter to the Central News Agency appealing to them for their co-operation. The receipt forms were taken back to the Immigration Office, where the