CO129-622-7 Department of Commerce and Industry- reorganisation and Annual Report 4-4-1949 - 20-2-1950 — Page 41

54466/49.

53

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Colonial Office,

The Church House,

Great Smith Street,

S. W. 1.

7th February, 1950.

Thank you for your letter of 22nd November, 1949, in which you gave us your views on our suggestion that the time might have come for the appointment of an Economic Secretary. In the light of what you say, we agree that it would be uneconomical to have an Economic Secretary, or a Deputy Secretary (Economics), in addition to the head of the new Department of Commerce and Industry, who should, as you suggest, be your advisers on economic affairs.

With regard to the new Department of Commerce and Industry, we were most interested in the proposals for reorganisation contained in Himsworth's memorandum, and should like to have more information in this connection on the following points :-

(a) what progress has been made with the organisation of the

new Department on the basis of Himsworth's recommendations;

(6) to what extent the Department of Supplies, Trade and

(c)

Industry will, in fact, be absorbed into the new Department (it appears that it will not be completely absorbed); and whether an advisory "Board of Trade" is, in fact, to be set up.

On the question of the head of the new Department, I am afraid that we have not so far succeeded in finding any candidate whom we could confidently recommend. But we haven't given up hope and are still pursuing enquiries without commitment. We appreciate, of course, how important it is, especially in a place like Hong Kong, that the holder of this appointment should be above suspicion in the public mind. For that very reason we are a little uneasy about waiting as you propose at the end of your letter, because if, when Thomson has completed his defence assignment he should nevertheless be found unsuitable for this post, we should have to start from scratch again to find somebody else.

...

SIR ALEXANDER GRANTHAM, K.C.M.G.

(Signed)

A.H. Poynton.