CO129-590-11 Commission of Enquiry into irregularities in Immigration Departments 22-4-1941 - 19-12-1941 — Page 336

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have known to change more than once in the same day), any but the most general advice would have been obsolete before it could have been put into practice. Practical construc-

tive advice, the absence of which is criticised, was available to Mr. Forrest continually, but he failed to

secure those conditions of stability which are essential to its formulation. Further, such advice as I found it

possible to give was not followed, owing to the failure of the Immigration Officer to enforce the necessary discipline amongst his staff, especially the more senior of the tem-

porary employees. (I should like to add, here, that since the control of the department has been in other hands, willing to co-operate and to accept my advice, constructive advice has been given, accepted and proved satisfactory).

4. There are also other matters having a bearing on this question which would not be known to the Commission and which I submit should be brought to the knowledge of His Excellency, as he was absent from the Colony during this period which made it difficult for Treasury to give that attention to the Immigration which I should have liked. the period November 1940 to February 1941 the financial

officers of Government were having to deal with other unsatis- factory matters, besides the short-comings of the Immigration

Department.

(A) In the first place there were the shortcomings of Mr. Kennedy-Skipton as Food Controller; the vague and unsatisfactory arrangements he was making for the purchase of beans, etc., in Shanghai; his omission to consult the financial officers before making financial arrangements and commitments; and the difficulties which were encountered in obtain- ing from him the information on which to prepare the accounts of food reserves.

(B) Secondly, there was the failure of the Military Authorities and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps to deal satisfactorily with the large re- serves of food with which they had saddled the Civil Administration.

(C) Thirdly, the enquiry into the costs of production

of cement by the Green Island Cement Company, which, owing to the unnecessarily bad atmosphere in which it was being conducted prior to my being called in to advise, took up for a while 100% of my personal

During