To: Hon. Financial Secretary.
From: Director of Supplies, Trade and Industry.
Enclosure 1.
21st June, 1946.
27
1.
and
I have now had time to study the needs of this department,
having due regard to the temporariness of its activities I have made the
following analysis :-
(i)
Directorate.
The only weakness is the use of B.O.R.s who must
eventually be repatriated to Britain; there are five
doing Signals and General Registry work, but I think
they could be replaced by three Chinese clerks.
(ii)
Procurement Section.
An examination of the future activities of this
section indicates that it will continue to be responsible:-
(a) for procuring from India or elsewhere what
remains of the Military Period programme and the
raw materials for industry.
(b) for identifying from shipping manifests and from
the meagre documents forwarded here all Government
cargoes.
(c) for collating and indenting with C.A. the second
six months food programme and other essentials
programme; and
(d) for supervising the arrival of the second six
months food programme which, to a large extent, is
on Government account.
-
RE
At the present moment all the Executive officers from
this Department there were three have left for home on
demobilisation and I am threatened with the removal of the
remaining four B.O.R.s. This is a very unfortunate state of
affairs, particularly since I am far from happy about the
comprehensiveness of the records of incoming War Office cargo
compiled during the Military Period. The chief difficulty lies
in the fact that no proper Bills of Lading or Invoices were