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received and any documents forwarded from the R.E. or other military
depots in India were hopelessly vague; more often than not they bore
no relation whatever to the original Procurement Programme agreed in
the planning stage.
It is true that it has not yet been decided between the War
Office and the Colonial Office whether the Hong Kong Government should
pay for these rehabilitation materials, and it is possible that we
will not have to, but unfortunately it is our clear duty to keep the
best records possible and to attempt, even against insuperable odds,
to relate them to our original programme.
Staff to do this is
essential.
I do not feel justified in asking for three Executive Officers,
but I consider that with one senior S.C. & A. Staff and three or four
Government Clerks (J.C.S. Class 3 and 4) I may be able to manage; in
the meantime you have given me Mr. Jenkins, so that the outstanding
commitment here is for 3 or 4 good Chinese clerks. I have now been
informed that B.O.R.s are leaving within a week and I must have
Chinese clerks immediately in order that they can get some insight into
the records before the B.O.R.s leave.
(iii)
Price Control.
Too little, in my opinion, has been done about moulding this
important section into a small but cohesive striking force against the
rising cost of living in the Colony.
During the military period this
section confined its activities to controlling prices of those
commodities (mostly Government) which had been imported in sufficient
quantities to provide a reasonable distribution on a population basis;
it has waged only a sniping campaign against the great mass of other
commodities (mainly essential) imported by commercial firms in the
Colony. This sniping campaign, is in my opinion, valueless because,
although it has involved the examination of invoices covering a large
list of imported commodities and an agreement with importers about
their commissions and those of the retailer, in practice it has
effected little, because there never has been the inspector staff to
supervise ultimately the activities of the retailer.