I.
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COOPERATIVES
GOVERNMENT COOPERATIVE OFFICER.
129 See (29) or
(HONG KONG).54 236/46
C
I have had long discussions with Miss Margaret Digby (Horace Plunkett Foundation) and with Miss Polley (International Cooperative Alliance; on 6th March; and a brief talk with Sir Frank Stockdale on the same day. Subsequent discussions were held with J. P. Tamworth and with Clifton Large.
2. The questions of cooperation, cooperative organizations, and cooperative officers cannot be ignored in post-war Hong Kong. In Fisheries a large organization has already been firmly established which will develop or be transformed into a Producers Cooperative. In Agriculture a comparable organization has been set up this year which will handle first the transport end market- ing of vegetables and which can in turn also be developed into a Producers Cooperative. The establishment of Communal Forests in the New Territories is a feasible proposition and should also be reviewed. These three branches, Fisheries, Agriculture, and Forestry, cover almost completely the rural community and it is this aspect only that is considered here.
3.
Although organizations for the communal handling of fish and vegetables have already been established in Hong Kong, no person concerned with them has any knowledge of cooperative organ- izations. Sooner or later difficulties will arise concerned, for example, with legal and financial problems and these will need competent handling if chaos is to be avoided. Already the monetary value of fish handled has reached alarming proportions, upwards of £180,000 value of fish having been sold by the Fisheries organization in January alone. I am convinced that Government should provide a Cooperatives Officer whose business it is to see that the organizations grow up on the right lines and who can in person discuss problems with the various village units. The appointment of such a Government officer would be quite independent of any men trained subsequently for cooperative work and paid by one or other of the different rural cooperative organizations of which they would be members.
4. If this viewpoint is accepted, that the Hong kong Goverment should provide a rural cooperative officer, then attention can be paid to the best method of filling such an appointment. In some Colonies a Government cadet, usually of some years' seniority, fills such a post. Usually he is given special training prior to his appointment. It might be argued that such an appointment would be best for Hong Kong. It must be remembered that, senior cadets, suited in temperament and education for such a post, are rare and costly. It should also be noted that the cooperative movement in Hong Kong is in its infancy and therefore Government may be unwilling to second one of the best of their administrative personnel for this work. There is an alternative method of approach which I believe is worth careful consideration.
5.
The most important qualifications that a man should possess for such a post are integrity, enthusiasm, adaptability, knowledge of the language and knowledge of the country and of its people. If a man in Government service with these qualifications can be found then it is a simple matter to give him the necessary knowledge of cooperatives. If the man is young he will learn the more readily and will be the more able to adapt his newly acquired knowledge to the problems to be faced and, moreover, should Goverment at a later date wish to appoint a more senior man in his stead, he can be transferred to another department without difficulties arising.
/6.
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