CO129-590-11 Commission of Enquiry into irregularities in Immigration Departments 22-4-1941 - 19-12-1941 — Page 99

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position is still the same up to date. n already over-crowded

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building had now to find socompĉation for an additional group of workers: shroffs secured and trained in handling cash were still not available, though asked for almost daily; and the crowds became even more alamorous than before for early at ention lest they be compelled to lose their money by leaving the Colony before they could be repaid thera. Difficult cases kept on cropping up, such as crses of lost deposit receipts; cases of friends or relativos, or of persons claiming to be no, who insisted they were authorised to collect on behalf of depositors, and who for no apparent reason or for too good rernons, refused to understand my hesitation to pay them; cases of doubtful identity; cases of agencies and lodging houses which induced ignorant persons to entrust them with the receipts and then held them to ransom.

All the above complications are the direct and the ex- pected results of allowing a concession to expand into a system; but they were not unfortunately the whole story of the difficul- ties to which the system gave rise. The innaf:iciency or shroffs led to officers accepting in good faith forged notes as accurity from passengers; the same officers reached the office late in

the evening in charge of very large quantities sometimes 08 much as $25,000 in cash, there being no one except the Imi- gration officer himself to take it into safe custody, nor any place in which the money at that time of night could be placed except the office strong-room; passengers arrived from Shanghai and elsewhere with no Hong Kong currency, so that inadequately trained officers were left in the middle of the harbour faoed with the difficulty duty of deciding whether to accept foreign currency or refuse to clear the ship until arrangements could be made some twelve or more hours later to have the foreign carrers oies exchanged. They chose, - I think correctly the former course, but this in turn created fresh embarrasaments, for the Treasury refused to have anything to do with such cash, and ite custody until it could be repaid to the depositors made still more deriands on my safe space, and its handling in repayment confused my untrained cashiers. To make matters worse, the

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