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54126/5/48 (6) on '47 file.
8.
I labour this point because it is just here that our staffing arrangements have proved most vunerable. Before the war we tried to arrange recruitment so that we sent two new cadets to Canton or Macao every year, and occasionally a third. This would have meant that had there been no war, we should since 1939 have had 18 officers speaking Cantonese. As it is, not a single Cadet since Teesdale has had a chance of learning Cantonese, and with the exception of Wakefield who spoke it fairly well before joining, and Tsui who though a Hakka speaks Cantonese, we have now a service half of which cannot speak or understand the language of the people. Nor can I see much hope of sparing any of the immediate postwar entry from their everyday duties at present. We have made a start with Barlow, who had been a month in Canton when the anti-British riot drove him out again, and are trying hard to get a house in Macao where Mr. and Mrs. Barlow and the three cadets due later this year (Luddington, Snelgrove and Wilson) can go, so as to prevent the rot going any further.
9.
The attached nominal roll shows the position as against the "approved" establishment. If two more candidates can be selected (vice Wynne-Jones and Megarry) to take the course which begins at the end of this year, we may be able to hold the fort until the removal of Treasury control foreshadowed in your telegram No. 611 of 1st June, 1948, enables our staff despatch No. 107 of 3rd September, 1947, to come forward for consideration after a decent interval.
Vidi
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Yours sincerely,
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