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:
The Chairman of that Commission is in rather
a peculiar frame of mind, and I know that the
phraseology in many cases was of his choice
entirely. As I have told you in my telegram,
I have kept the report temporarily from
publication, because otherwise I fear, and
Selwyn-Clarke fully supports that fear, that
Forrest might do himself a mischief. But the
report will have to be published I think:
the evidence was taken in public and excited
great attention.
I do not know how the enquiry into
Kennedy-Skipton's mismanagement of the food
stocks is progressing. Happily that is only
by a committee which is sitting in private.
For the rest, the Civil Service is very
heavily overborne by work. Ten of the cadet
officers out of thirty-three are on full time
war work e.g. Ministry of Information, the new
Immigration Office, War Taxation, Economic
Warfare and so forth, and many of them are
becoming seriously over-due for leave. At
the time of writing four are on leave only,
which is well below the normal average. Like
the officers in the other departments they
are for the most part doing excellent work.
There is only one thing about the Service
which is worrying me at the present time, and
on that I am addressing you by despatch. It
is the extent to which smuggling of petrol,
motorcar parts and so forth into China is
causing the spread of graft and corruption