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"You seem to be proof against almost everything except a direct hit" this was of course said with a smile and the lady replied also smilingl The conversation is hardly in keeping with what the Commission has heard concerning my attitude on the day in question.
The letter of Mr. Keswick bears, I think, its own refutation so far as accuracy and veracity are concerned. It is inconceivable that when Mr. Keswick took the trouble of ascertaining my name he was not in- formed of my official position. The letter shows that he had taken no particular trouble to check his facts later. If then he was informed that I was the Immigration Officer I can only regard his description of me as a passport clerk as deliberate inaccuracy and in the worst possible taste.
On the other hand, if I am only occasionally given to bullying I would ask whether it is likely that I should have chosen as an occasion for bullying a time when I went a specially to show my staff on biard a ship how passport examination should best be conducted.
On the other hand if bullying were habitual in me the following in- cident is difficult to understand, inasmuch as my own staff must have from time to time come in for more than a fair share of such treatment
On one of the many occasions on which I was disposed to give way to the difficulties which beset me and on account of a specially great disappointment coupled with what I regarded as want of sympathy on the part of those who could help me in my task, I actually wrote to the Colonial Secretary and signed a letter asking to be relieved of my post. That letter was of course seen by several members of my staff. No fewer than three of those members came and begged me to withdraw or ask to be transferred elsewhere as they would not work under those conditions for any other head than my self, Feeling therefore that I owed loyalty to those who had shown such tru-st in me I withdrew the letter, which was never sent forward.
I take this opportunity to hand in a few letters which have reached me since the last session; the frendliness and sense of fair play which they prove may do something to restore the fair name of the Colony for which Major Manners and Mr. Keswick are so properly concerned."
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