4
Secondly, the Board would advise the Government on any matter of policy which was submitted to the Board for consideration, This should provide a quick means of communication between the Government and merchants and would ensure that a wide range of interested parties
buld be consulted before any Government action is taken,
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60
The Government would be in constent touch with the various manu- facturing, trading and commercial interests in the Colony. An effective liaison would be established with the overall economy of the Colony: The Government would be enabled to speak and act with the full know- ledge that effective consideration had been given to any action affect- ing the welfare of the commercial community which it proposed to take, and there would be a ready means of explaining Government policy to the mercantile community and receiving spoody representations from them. This would probably do more than a whole book of Regulations to assimilte control, where control was needed, to make changes with the maximum speed and to ensure that local commerce is not burdened with outmoded or unnecessary legislation.
The Director of the Department of Trade & Industry would be the Government's representative who would superviso questions of fares and rates in public utility companies, where the Government reserved to itself, approval for changes.
The Board would hold regular meetings but could be summoned when- ever there was special needs requiring its consideration.
THE" NEW DTPART ENT: Tho now Dopartment would have three main
5. functions:
•
b
C
The collection of Revenue on Dutiablo Commodities.
The collection and dissemination of Economic and
Commercial information,
Miscellaneous functions which have to be performed by
the Government and which are bost done by the Imports and Exports Dopartment.
a REVENUE COLLECTION: It is argueable that the collection of revenue, which is running at about $40 million per annum, is of sufficient importance to warrant a separate Government Department for the administration of the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance. Against this, however, it may be pointed out that the personnel which vi 11 start the now Department will probably be drewn in a larve wonguro from the present Imports and Exports Department and it would be unwise to staff a new Revenue Section with inexperienced personnel. Moreover, the bulk of the miscellaneous functions which the new Department will undertake will be those at present undertaken by the Imports and Exports Department; These have no direct connection with the collection of
revenue.
Again while it is expected that the now Department will extend its activities into many now fields it is impossible to estimate at this juncture, just how large an area these activities will covor. It would seem better that these new activities should be assimilated into the present Imports and Exports Department and if the whole structure should become unweildy at some future dato then the Revenue Collection and ancillary functions could be separated into a special epartment.
Finally, there are good reasons why the present outdoor staff, which is primarily engaged in preventive work, should be available for the now Department. It is sometimos desirable to have outdoor staff to make enquiries, for example on a factory which claims to manufacture goods under Imperial Proference privileges, and while the se are not numerous it would be uneconomic to recruit a special staff for the purpose.
THE COLLECTION AND DISSEMINATION OF ECONOMIC AND COMMERCIAL
INFORMATION: It is under this head that the bulk of the Department's now functions would fall.
In general the Department would collect month to month information on economic conditions in the Far