CO129-590-11 Commission of Enquiry into irregularities in Immigration Departments 22-4-1941 - 19-12-1941 — Page 93

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work, however, the gradually mount ing number of those discovered in various forms of dishonesty, and a number of anonymous letters which

led me to think that those who escaped detection were at least má

numerous as those against whom I secured evidence, „radually changed

my mind.

recognition of an agency, I should perhaps explain, meant

that the agent was coached in the proper method of completing forma

ami of the evidence to be brought in suport of the several types of

claim; that he was supplied with forma of wplication without question; that his clients were excused from personal attendance at my office both when making application and again when the document

was ready for issue. This last xxxxXİSK concession, made not only

to recognised agencies, but also to guilds and so ieties recommended for that purpose by the Secretary for Chinese affairs, and to private

individuals who apply by post, is of all my departures, so far as I

am aware of them, from ordinary immi ration procedure in any part

of the world where control is in force, the one of which I am most

doubtful; it has not, so far as I am aware, Deen criticised, but it

is a weakening of control of which I am very conscious; the only

justification which I can offer for that departure was the physical

impossibility of dealing individually with the flaod of applicants

in the office space at my disposal, the impossibility of expending

that space under one roof, and the impossibility of effectively

decentralising to any greater extent without further experienced

administrative assistance, which, as you will hear later, was not

furnished me until long after the necessity of this enquiry was

already apparent. It shows, I think, a curious lack of apprecia-

tion of the main objects of our legislation that so far from

criticism being based on this loosening of control, I have on the

contrary been blamed for not making application for documents even

easier and even more a matter of course by distributing the applica-

tion forms in any quantity to all comers, and by accepting applica-

the

tions more freely by/post.

The answer is in place at this point,

Decause, in addition to the objection on the grounds of loss of

control, it was necessary to prevent, as far as possible, the