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with this section and last month there were 377 callers seeking
help and advice in one form or another. This section's activities
are legion, but its activities in reviving the rubber and the rubber
shoe industry, the textile industry (on a limited basis), the biscuit
industry, the chocolate and sweet industry, the aluminium industry
and the most recent agreement assuring the supply of newsprint and
paper to the Colony at reasonable prices, are particularly
meritorious.
Moreover, once export trade conditions become normal,
this section can perform an useful function in helping exporters.
For the moment, however, the department is understaffed
and its whole operations are in the hands of Mr. Galvin and one
European inspector. Additional help on the administrative side is
One reasonably senior and experienced officer should
required.
be attached to Mr. Galvin
-
if I knew when Mr. Colledge was coming
back he might be the solution.
(vi)
Fuel, Marketing and Accounts
The above-mentioned analysis, however, only stops the
leaks because even in these sections (whose activities are nearly
Governmental) there is a constant simmering revolution about the
inadequacy of the salaries, particularly in view of the fact that
many of the employees are on a temporary basis with no hope of
attaining permanency in a government department.
When we reach
the Fuel, Marketing and Accounting Sections - the buying and selling
part of the organisation where commercial knowledge is fundamental
this condition becomes symptomatic.
Chinese and
All of the employees in these sections
European alike are commercial men who each have their own special
knowledge and niche, and oftentimes their responsibility is very large.
Last month, for instance, our sales through these three sections were
16,000,000 Dollars, or probably 33% of the Colony's whole business.
Since we take a percentage of all business done, inevitably, if we
administer properly, we must make a tidy profit for Government.
continue to administer properly, however, is the problem for at
present the commercial world rates the services of employees more
highly than we do and each week brings its crop of resignations on the
To