CO537-4075 — Page 26

5

12.

(111)

(iv)

(v)

branches of Civil Defence.

יז

Large sums were spent on laying in stocks of rice, meat, milk, medical stores etc.

•

Money was found for requisition- ing cars, lorries and bicycles.

When work was done for the Ser- vices on a large scale (e.g. Morib aerodrome), the Services deposited the necessary funds with the Civil Government and the Civil Government Engineer in charge of the work made payments from those funds; the Civil Government continued to pay the salaries of the P.w.D. officers and the Services undertook to re- fund those salaries plus leave and passage contribution and pension contribution - the usual arrange- ment for officers seconded to another administration. Some works may have been financed by Civil Government in the first in-

stance from a below-the-line account, against an undertaking to repay.

No specific examples other than those referred to in B. (b) (ii) can be quoted.

1.3.

It is believed that the Malay Regiment and Volunteer Forces were not taken over by His Majesty's Government as part of the general cost of the prosecution of the war. There was, it is thought, a proposal in 1940 by the Army that on mobilisation the Volunteers would be entirely administered by the Army and the Civil Government would pay war Office $2 per man per day, but this may not have been intended as an all-inclusive charge but only to cover rations and equipment, the Civil Government still being liable for pay and allowances.

When the R.N.V.R. was mobilised in September, the Navy said they could pay everything, and for about a year they did so. Then a correspondence started as to liability, the decision taken is not known, but it is believed that the Navy went on paying.

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When the V.A.F. was mobilised, the R.A.F. ministered the Force but refused to accept liability and Civil Government made monthly payments to the R.A.F.

It can therefore be said that there was, on the outbreak of war in 1939, an almost complete lack of clear policy decisions in regard to incidence of cost as be- tween the United Kingdom and local Governments. Not many clear decisions had been made by December, 1941.

I.4.

It is not thought that a Committee comprising local Government and Services Finance Officers is needed. If decisions as to incidence of cost are made in time at

the/